Old Memories Haunting a New Beginning
by BlackMamba104
Summary: ALL HUMAN! Rose moves to Lissa's school as she's been kicked out of everywhere else. Will her past truly remain in the past or will it come back to haunt her? Will she find love or new enemies? Rated M because I'm really paranoid.
1. And so it begins

There was darkness all around me. I was sat in a cold, dark room. I could hear the constant, drip, drip, drip, from a hole in the ceiling. It was comforting. I waited for each drip to sound on the concrete floor. It was that that was keeping me from screaming. But then it stopped and I felt it again. I felt _their _presence. They were waiting for me. Waiting for me to join them. Waiting for me to walk to the door that stood opposite me, bold and intimidating. I knew that once I opened that door, and walked out into whatever lay behind it, I would never return.

"Rose! Rose!" I heard someone's sweet, yet frantic voice yell into my dream. The room began to twist away, like how smoke would when caught in a breeze. The black ran away and gave way to a pair of wide, panicked jade eyes.

"Lissa?" I whispered very quietly. Her hands were gripping tightly onto my shoulders, her nails biting into my bare skin. The thin straps of my top were tangled into her fingers as she stared down at me, fear falling off of her in waves. It almost smothered me.

"Did you have the nightmare again?" she asked me, her voice barely audible.

"I'm fine Liss," I assured her weakly. I wasn't fine, but I didn't want her to worry. She needed to stay calm, she needed to stay calm for both of us.

"Are you sure?" she double-checked. She wasn't buying my lie and I knew it.

"Liss, I'm fine, now go and get changed," I told her firmly. She was my best friend, and I detested lying to her but I had to. It was for her own sake after all.

I watched Lissa cross the room and plop down on her own bed. She began her morning routine of kicking her slippers off and pulling on some fresh socks. She wore pale lilac ones. _It must be Monday_ I thought to myself.

"You need to get dressed too Rose, it's your first day at my school," she reminded me. I could see the excitement and pride in her eyes. She was happy about going to school with me. She was looking forward to today. I wish I could say the same.

Ever since I was little, I had hated rules. They were like a cage and I did anything to rebel against them. There were a few people who understood, or at least tried to understand my aversion to the rules. Even so, they couldn't have stopped the bitches who kicked me out of school after school. I had been to a grand total of eight schools in my time. I know I shouldn't but I feel proud of that number.

But, I'm not to blame for all of this. My parents, or lack of, are. I don't even know my father. Well, I do know he's Turkish, and he's the one who gave me my dark, almost black hair, and my deep brown eyes and tanned skin. I can't actually think of what traits my mother has passed onto me. Feistiness maybe? Anyway, my mother is a bitch. That is all I wish to say for now. She is a bitch who kicked me out of my own home because "She couldn't cope with my reckless behaviour anymore." What a shitty excuse that is! So now I'm here, in my best friend, Vasilisa Dragomir's house. Although I like to call her Lissa. Today is my first day at a new school, Lissa's school, and I was dreading it.

"So Rose, what are you planning on wearing today?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. I closed the en-suite door behind me and silently wished I could run back into the shower and hide there forever.

"Clothes maybe Liss?" I answered sarcastically, grabbing a brush from her desk where she did her make-up and hair. I looked into the mirror that hung on the wall above the desk and groaned as I saw the shadows under my eyes from a long series of sleepless nights.

"Can I help you choose?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes at me as she ran the brush through her long, silky smooth platinum blonde hair one final time.

I rolled my eyes at her exasperatedly "If you must Lissa," I answered with a heavy sigh. Inside I was secretly relieved she was organising my outfit for me. I knew that if I did it I'd end up going to school in some loose, mucky jeans and a baggy t-shirt that looks two sizes too big. I hadn't cared about what I wore since last year.

I heard Lissa patter over to my side of the room and she delved into my wardrobe. I'm surprised she didn't get lost in all the crap that's in there.

"Rose, you need new clothes!" Lissa exclaimed. Glancing over my shoulder I saw her eyes widen in shock as she took in the poor contents of my 'wardrobe'.

"I know Liss," I answered, absently turning back to the mirror.

"Hmm, so I was think of a sexy yet, casual look, to turn a few heads if you get what I mean," I couldn't be bothered to reply to her trivial chatter about my clothes for the day and I flicked on the hair dryer.

Pretty soon my hair was as dry as a bone and sat in a long, dark waterfall, tumbling down my back.

"Clothes," Lissa shoved a handful of clothes in my face as soon as I had turned round. She had a devious smile on my face and for what could have been the millionth time today, I rolled my eyes.

She had chosen a red tank-top that showed a fairly decent amount of cleavage. I would have normally considered it slutty but with the black skinny jeans that hugged my legs perfectly and a sweet, black hooded jacket. It made me look a little bit less like a slut but certainly showed off my body. Liss then attacked my face with make-up and I ended up with a smoky eyes look that complemented my dark features perfectly. Looking good made me feel a fraction better about the upcoming day.

"You look great, anyway, I figured you wouldn't want to eat so that's why we are running later than usual," she was perfectly right. My stomach was doing back-flips. I did not feel like eating right now.

"Don't you want to eat?" I asked her.

"I'm nervous too," she confessed quietly. I frowned at her slightly. Why would she have any excuse to be nervous? She had been going to this school for what seemed like forever. Then it clicked.

"Christian's getting a lift today isn't he?" I smiled at her. Christian was Lissa's boyfriend. To be honest, I didn't like him all that much, not because he's a dick or anything, it's because we're too alike, and I can't handle my own medicine. He's also Andre's best friend. Andre is Lissa's big brother. He's also like a big brother to me. Lissa wants us to get together but I find the thought of it rather revolting. He's very handsome but he's like a brother to me, I could never see him in any other way than that.

"Dimitri is also coming along apparently," Lissa told me, slicking another layer of lip-gloss onto her pink lips.

"Is he Andre's other friend?" I asked. His name rang a bell.

"Yeah, he's the weird one who you never see, but he's so hot it's unbelievable!" she exclaimed.

"Hmm, should I tell Christian that?" I mused thoughtfully, just to tease her.

"No way! I love Christian, besides, Dimitri is so not my type, he's so anti-social!" Lissa groaned. I could tell she didn't really think much of Dimitri, or maybe she just didn't know him that well. He sounded like the complete opposite to myself, quiet, anti-social, reserved, I'm the opposite of each one of those things and proud of it.

I heard a car horn sound outside and I hurried over to the window. I pushed open the curtains and placed my face to the glass. It was just turning spring so turning warmer and the sun was out. At least the weather was being kind to me. I looked down at Andre's blue Honda FRV and saw him glaring up at me impatiently. I gave him a sweet wave before backing away from the window and turning to Lissa.

"Let's go."

Me and Lissa bundled into the front of the car as it had three seats in the front and the back. It was Andre's little baby. He would murder anybody who hurt it. His father bought it for him a month ago. That reminded me of how generous and also rich, the Dragomir's were. Mrs Dragomir didn't even have to work because Mr Dragomir was paid so well. It wasn't the same with my parents. Well, my father could be a billionaire for all I know but my mother's job as a body guard didn't pay her as much as she would like. Still, I got none of that money, instead I fed off of the Dragomir's generosity.

"Guys, it's Rose's first day so go easy on her," Andre warned once me and Lissa were both buckled up.

"Oh, Rose, this is Dimitri Belikov," Andre announced, pointing to the back of the car. I glanced round to where Andre pointed to see the most gorgeous guy I have ever laid eyes on.

Lissa's simple explanation of hot was the biggest understatement of the year, no, make that the decade. He wore a tight fitting black t-shirt and I could see all his muscles underneath it and the bulging arm muscles. He wasn't bulky with his muscularity, but every inch of his body was muscle. His face was even more amazing. He was beautiful. His eyes were a dark, rich brown. It was like staring into a pool of melted chocolate. I wanted to dive straight in and get myself lost in there. His skin was tanned like my own and he had shoulder length brown hair pulled into a loose ponytail round at his neck. A few strands still rebelled against the ponytail and fell around his gorgeous face, framing it perfectly. He was a god.

"Hello Rose, it's good to meet you," he said with a smile. I couldn't help but notice the faint Russian accent laced into his words. My heart did a double back-flip. An accent, my greatest weakness.

"And you," I croaked out nervously before quickly turning round in my seat. I could feel my whole face heat up with embarrassment and I looked down at my hands that sat loosely in my lap. I felt Lissa's eyes on me and I could see out of the corner of my eye the small smirk on her lips.

"Don't say a word," I murmured to her, to quiet for anybody else to hear I hoped. With a satisfied cough she turned to look out of the window and we began going down the driveway slowly before pulling out onto the road and racing to school.

It took us five minutes to do a usually ten minute journey. Andre was a safe, good driver, but fast. He had good car control and brilliant reflexes but he could get you anywhere in half the time of any other driver.

We pulled up into the car park and I felt my stomach flip over. Lissa grabbed my hand and smiled at me reassuringly. I smiled at her shakily. I may have a vicious attitude but deep down I was a shy person. It shouldn't scared me after my past but started any new school made me tense and nervous. I heard everybody else spill out of the car but Lissa remained with me.

"Leave it all in the car," she advised, and with that, I stepped out, ready to begin the war with my new school.


	2. First Day

I took Lissa's advice, as always. I stepped out of the car, my trademark black cowboy boots making a 'clacking' noise against the bone dry concrete.

_Here we go Rose, just kick ass, _my mini-me in my brain advised me. I would kick-ass. I may be a nervous wreck inside but nobody else needs to know that.

I watched as Dimitri, Andre and Christian all walked in a line in front of us. I was a little confused as to why Christian wasn't walking with Lissa but I quickly figured that she would have preferred to have stayed with me on my first day. That made me feel better. I knew my best friend was there for me no matter what, she always has been.

"You feeling okay?" Lissa checked. Everybody else may have thought I was looking cool, calm and confident, but inside I was very messed up. Lissa knew me better. We had been inseparable since we were five. Even with all the shit that had gone on in my past, she was always there. She was the only person who was.

"I'm all good," I replied evenly, with a small smile. I scrutinized my surroundings. I had only been here once before when Mr Dragomir had to pick Liss up early from school when she had felt ill. The school was basic, like most schools in the area. Boring, dull white blocks of various sizes and a sports field out the back. I had been to schools like this before and if they were anything to go by, it would be easy to escape from.

Me and Lissa stopped off at the main reception so we could pick up my timetable. I looked down at it and groaned:

_Period 1: Maths_

_Period 2: History_

_Period 3: Physical Education_

_Break_

_Period 5: ICT_

_Lunch_

_Period 6: English_

_Period 7: Art_

"God, have they given me enough lessons?" I moaned exasperatedly.

"We pretty much have the same lessons aside from ICT and art, I have design and music instead," Lissa told me, casting her pale green eyes over my paper.

"Shame, but I bet I must have at least one of Andre's mates in those lessons," I pointed out. She nodded and smiled sympathetically before leading me to maths which happened to take place in the main block.

I stepped inside and I realised as soon as I stepped into the room that I was not going to get on with this teacher.

"Ah, Rosemarie Hathaway, it's a pleasure to meet you at last," he said with a sarcastic, smug smile on his face. He had some kind of torture planned for me this lesson.

"Cool," I muttered coldly, surveying the rest of the class. Christian had this class with us. _Don't watch them, _mini-me advised me. I didn't plan on watching Lissa and Christian making out all lesson, or worse. There was so many things that they could get up to at the back of the classroom under that table. I shuddered at the thought.

"So, would you like to introduce yourself to the rest of the class?" he asked, trying to sound innocent. He was anything but. Lissa made her escape to the back of the classroom and took up the empty seat next to Christian.

"Not really," I replied absently. This gained a few shocked gasps and chuckles from the class.

"Well I would like you to, come on, step up and take the limelight," he pressed. I stared at him and narrowed my eyes into slits. There was about one thousand different words that I could use to describe him rushing through my head at that moment, and none of them were good.

"Fine," I grumbled, taking a few long strides to where he stood. He moved back and I threw him a dirty look over my shoulder.

I looked out at my audience. I noticed the boys almost seemed in awe of me, which gave me a lick of satisfaction, and the girls were either smiling, as if they were trying to get good with me, or they were staring at me enviously.

"My name is Rose Hathaway, I'm seventeen and I really don't want to be here," I took a breath before turning to the teacher "Happy now?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows.

"Thank you Miss Hathaway, now take a seat," he ordered me. I sauntered down the aisle and plopped down next to a cute ginger haired boy at the back. I only sat there because that was as close as I could get to Lissa.

"Don't start anything," Lissa warned, leaning over slightly in case I didn't hear her whisper.

"As if I would," I gave her a sweet, innocent smile before turning my attention to the front of the class.

"Hi, I'm Mason, Mason Ashford," I heard someone whisper beside me in a low voice. I turned my head for my gaze to be met by a pair of smoky blue eyes.

"Pleased to meet you Mason," I said with a smile, whilst shaking his hand firmly.

Turns out the teacher's name was Stan Alto. I made a mental note to write Stan's name on my list of people to kill when I got home.

History was as boring as it had been in all of my other schools. I just didn't have the patience with it, and all of my history teachers seem to be as boring as hell. This one was no different. She was such a wet drip I just wanted to mop her up with a paper towel and chuck her in a bin. I hadn't even bothered to find out her name. At least she hadn't made me introduce myself like Stan had.

PE however was brilliant. We were playing hockey and even though it wasn't my favourite sport, my strength had me scoring the whole way through the game. My team won and I had made a few friends in the process. Abby Badica, a sweet girl who had asked me what sort of conditioner I used for my hair, and Camille Conta. I didn't like Camille as much, she seemed a bit offish with me. It seemed as though she was only talking with me because Abby had and I was the new girl who everyone was talking about.

I was relieved when break came rolling around. Lissa and I sat down on the field by a small tree. It wasn't long before Andre came sauntering along with Dimitri and Christian in tow. Christian rushed up to Lissa and the two proceeded to have a major make-out session. Me and Andre made gagging noises and eventually they stopped.

"Do either of you two have English 6th lesson or Art 7th?" Lissa asked once she was settled comfortably in Christian's lap. She only addressed Christian and Dimitri as Andre was the year above us. I still hadn't gotten to the bottom of the mystery as to why he hung out with people in the year below.

"I have both of them," Dimitri spoke up. It was the first time had spoken for the whole of break. I now understood what Lissa meant about him being anti-social. He was still hot however, and I had two lessons to ogle him today!

During break I had spent some time staring at Dimitri and how he reacted around his friends. He was very, very reserved and quiet. I could tell he was wearing a mask. Not a mask like the one you would find in fancy dress shops but a mask that prevented us from seeing what emotions he was experiencing. The only way I knew this is because I used to wear one all the time. There was a time when I never wanted anyone to know my emotions. I do it a lot now still. I just can't help it anymore. I had an urge to get to the bottom of why he was protecting his emotions from us. I would find out when I knew him better, I would just have to wait a while first.

ICT and English passed quickly to my relief. I got on relatively well in both of those subjects and seeing as Lissa's tongue buddy wasn't in those lessons I got to sit with her whilst she gave me tips on how to piss each teacher off. Tips that she would never use herself of course because she was just to much of a goody-two-shoes. I reminded her that she had told me to not start anything earlier and now she was giving me ammunition, that made her curse herself.

At lunch I met two new people. Natalie Dashkov, a pretty, but extremely thin and tall girl with green eyes only a shade darker than Lissa's and pretty black hair that she had scraped back into a messy bun. She seemed rather awkward but she was chatty enough and very welcoming. It made a change from the stares a had received from a few particular girls I had passed that morning.

The second new person I had met was Eddie Castille, a sweet boy who was Natalie's boyfriend. They clung onto eachother the whole time. They didn't kiss like Lissa and Christian did, they just sat there, perfectly happy in each other's company. I envied them a little. I had never had that sort of relationship with anyone. I had never let them get close enough, because of my past, which I choose not to dwell on.

Once again I found myself watching Dimitri's every move intently. He was like a puzzle that was there for me to figure out. I wanted to figure him out. The feeling scared me a little. I had never had that desire to discover what triggered a person's actions like I did for him.

He distanced himself from the group and his dark brown gaze remained fixed on the open window for the whole time as he day-dreamed about God knows what. I realized with a prickle of excitement that I had two lessons with him alone. Maybe I would discover a little more about what made this guy act the way he did.


	3. Dimitri Belikov

**Hi, I'm only just working out how to use this whole publishing thing so excuse any mistakes!**** Here's chapter three and I hope you like it ;) All characters belong to Richelle Mead, although I would love for Dimitri to be mine!**

Dimitri and myself walked to English is silence. It wasn't an awkward silence, it was comfortable. I didn't feel any need to speak. That was new, I always felt like I had to talk when I was around people. I always felt as though I had to make a joke or something. But with him, I just didn't, and I barely knew him!

When we stepped into the classroom Dimitri headed straight to the desk at the back where the ginger haired boy I had met in maths sat. Mason. I sighed to myself, realizing I wouldn't be able to get to know Dimitri any better in this lesson.

"Hello Miss Hathaway! I'm Mrs Lilly," the woman was a fat and plump with a rather unfortunate piggy face. But she seemed nice so her looks meant nothing.

"Now, we need to find you a desk," she scanned the room, squinting her little blue eyes as she did so.

"That desk there at the back next to Dimitri and Mason is free," she pointed to the desk beside them. So I was now one desk away from Dimitri, but I still had Mason between us.

I strode down the classroom and sat myself down in my seat. Turns out we were doing Romeo and Juliet. I think I had read that about a million times in all my other schools! Still, I liked it and it was an easy topic for me to work on.

When the class had been given some work they began to chatter. Mason leaned over towards my desk.

"Hey there," he greeted.

"Hi Mase, you okay?" I asked, scribbling a brief doodle of a flower in the corner of my page.

"I'm good, great now that you're here," he added. Hmmm, so he was a flirt. Thank God I had found somebody who was!

"Likewise Mase, likewise," I answered, drawing the last petal onto my flower.

I found myself sneaking a glance past Mason as he chatted about various trivial things. Beside him sat Dimitri, tall, beautiful and God-like. The sun shot through the window and settled onto his face, making it glow. His eyes seemed to catch on fire as the light passed straight through them.

He remained transfixed on his work, quietly making his way down the page of answers. I watched him intently, hoping that Mason wouldn't notice where my gaze had wandered off to.

"Hey Rose?" Mason broke my thoughts. I jerked my gaze back to him and felt myself blush ever so slightly.

"What?" I asked. Mason narrowed his eyes at me and then looked round to Dimitri before looking back at me, raising an eyebrow with a smirk on his face.

"You finished gazing at him?" Mason asked teasingly.

"Shut it Mason!" I ordered, slapping him lightly on the arm.

Nothing much else happened in the lesson after that. Me and Mason exchanged some sarcasm and I realised he thought a bit like me. We were going to get on well with eachother, I could tell.

Then, I remembered what the next lesson was: Art. I had one last chance to bag a seat next to Dimitri and get to know him on a one to one level. He waited for me by the door, not looking at me or anything. His face was perfectly blank, he was almost like a robot. The only reason he gave me that made me sure he was waiting for me is when he began walking as soon as I was beside him.

Yet again we walked in silence and I began to notice the stares we were receiving. I knew Dimitri was anti-social but he went around with Andre and Christian, it wasn't that weird to see him with someone else, was it? Or was it because I was the hot topic of conversation and he never had been and yet here we were walking together? Oh the confusing social workings of a school!

"You can sit next to me," Dimitri announced evenly as we stepped into the classroom. I was hoping to just slip past the teacher without having to introduce myself or listen to them introducing themselves. But, there was no such luck.

Dimitri slipped away as silently as a shadow whilst the teacher almost pounced on me. She had pretty flame-coloured hair and high, prominent cheekbones. She was pretty but had a mad glint in her ears.

"Rose! Oh I've been so looking forward to meeting you!" the teacher enthused. Okay, getting weirder and weirder.

"I'm Ms Karp, or Sonya, but don't tell anyone I told you that," she whispered with a smile and a wink.

"Um okay, it's nice to meet you too," I answered, shaking her hand politely before quickly escaping to where Dimitri sat at the back of the class by the window. This guy had a thing about windows.

"Jesus, she's a bit full on isn't she?" I gasped as I sat down, chucking my bag underneath the table.

"You get used to it," Dimitri answered plainly, staring out of the window like he had in English. Even though the silence was comfortable I really wanted to speak with him. I wanted to get to know him. It was strange, I had never had the feeling before in my life.

"So what topic are we working on?" I asked as a way of making conversation. He turned to me and I saw a little sparkle flare up in his brown eyes. It made my heart almost skip a beat.

"Well, we are looking at other artists works and trying to combine them into our own personal pieces, along with throwing in a piece of our own style," he explained. His voice sounded more enthusiastic than it had for the whole time I had known him, which was only one day anyway.

"Am I behind then?" I asked him, quickly scrabbling for the questions and the right words.

"No, we've not started our final piece yet so there is no need to worry," god his accent was sexy. I was tempted to record his voice and then upload it onto my iPod and put it on repeat.

"Class, today we are going to draw our partners in a way that we think expresses them," Ms Karp began. _This is going to be interesting, _mini-me chipped in. I looked across at my partner and back to the front before silently agreeing with her.

"Rose and Dimitri, you two don't know eachother very well am I correct?" Ms Karp turned to us.

"Correct," Dimitri answered, his poker-face back in place.

"Do you think that you can carry out this task?" she asked us. I nodded. I already knew how I was going to draw Dimitri, and from the look on his face I think he knew how he was going to draw me. I felt apprehension creep in as the paper and the paints were passed around. I prayed he would draw a good interpretation of me.

"So why are you here?" Dimitri asked after we had begun painting.

"It's a long story," I muttered. _Basically, you don't want to open up to him, _mini-me mused absently. I gave her a good kicking in my head and waited for his response. I could see him frowning gently in the corner of my eye.

"I'm a good listener," he pressed.

"You'll get bored," I tried to push him away from this particular topic. Most other things I would be happy to talk about, but the reasons, and the causes for me to be here were just too painful for me to recall to him.

"If you don't want to talk about it I understand," unlike most people who said that I was actually convinced that he did understand. He had his own secret that he didn't want to. He understood my aversion to telling him my secret.

We sat in silence after that, carefully painting eachother, or what we saw inside eachother. I didn't dare glance over to his drawing until he was ready for me to, and I notice he didn't once glance over at mine.

"So you live with Vasilisa and Andre right?" Dimitri asked after a while, dipping his paintbrush into the water to remove any traces of the previous colour.

"Yeah, I moved in with them about two months ago," I replied, carefully focusing on one very intricate, thin black line.

"Why did it take so long for you to come to here?" he interrogated. I could hear the curiosity in his voice.

"Let's just say the school were 'reluctant' to have me," I answered with a slight smirk. They had kicked up such a fuss when Mr and Mrs Dragomir had asked to bring me here. They didn't want their school's perfect reputation to be destroyed by me. They didn't want me influencing all their brilliant students.

"Care to elaborated?" Dimitri pressed, glancing at me briefly. I could see him studying my eyes intently and I felt heat rise into my cheeks. I tossed my hair in front of my face and focused back on my painting very rapidly.

"I've been to many schools in my time, and been expelled from every one of them, this place is my last chance," I confessed. I glanced at him and saw a smile spread across his face. It was like a ray of lighting bursting through the mask - it was beautiful. It took my very breath away and I found my heart hyperactively spluttering inside my chest.

"What?" I asked, amazed that my voice sounded so calm. I felt a smile spread across my own face. His beautiful smile was contagious.

"Nothing," he muttered, still smiling before looking down at his work intensely.

I puzzled over his reaction for the rest of the lesson, driving myself half crazy. It had been years since I last thought this obsessively over somebody's every action. The feeling worried me. I didn't want to get close to him, because every time I got close to anybody new, I would undoubtedly hurt them. That's what happened to _her. _What happened with _her_ I still blamed myself for, even though it happened years ago. It still haunted me to this day.

"Rose? Rose, are you alright?" I heard a frantic, yet low Russian accent murmur in my ear. I felt a hot hand wrapped around my upper arm. But the hand suddenly flashed cold, like _hers, _then hot, then cold.

I yanked my arm out of his grip quickly. I couldn't stand having his hand wrapped around that same place on my arm as _she _had _her _hand. My breathing became erratic and I looked around at my surroundings. No wet, dark walls feeling like they were closing in, no rain puddles soaking into my shoes, no water trickling down my back like acid, and most importantly, no footsteps echoing behind me.

"Rose," I heard his voice whisper again, slightly firmer and more commanding this time. I shot my gaze up quickly and his eyes met my own instantly.

"I'm okay," I whispered back and I felt his grip loosen only fractionally. I watched his eyes scrutinize me, like he was trying to work out if I definitely was okay. I wasn't, but if I held his gaze evenly enough or long enough, he might believe I was.

"Okay," he eventually answered, letting go of my upper arm completely, to my relief. I let out a strong gust of breath and looked down at my painting with a sigh. I could still feel his eyes boring a hole into my skull.

"Sorry Dimitri," I whispered eventually, running a finger over a piece of dry paint on my picture.

"I like your painting Rose," he murmured. I was relieved to feel his eyes move off of me and onto my drawing.

"Thanks," I muttered. My hands felt old and sweaty as they sat limply in my lap. _Just chill Rose, _mini-me advised. She had dealt with these onslaughts of panic and memories many times before.

I studied my painting, trying to distract myself. I had drawn Dimitri fairly well, or I thought anyway. It was just a painting of his face but streaking through it was shards of light and patterns. Each shard of colour that obscured his face represented a different part about him. Behind him was a mirror, and in the mirror was an exact replica of his face instead of the back of his head, and he was wearing a black, pointed theatrical mask to represent the emotionless mask he had seemed to be wearing for the best part of the day.

"Can I see your drawing?" I asked him, my voice trembled and I watched him shoot me an anxious glance. He nodded regardless and focused his dark brown gaze back on his drawing.

The painting took my breath away. He had drawn my face perfectly, it was as if I was looking in the mirror. My eyes were focused forward, boring into anybody's eyes who looked at the painting. In the centre of my forehead was a keyhole, black and frightening.

You could see to just below my chest and from my chest, where my heart is, grew this massive explosion of hot, vibrant, feisty colours. Around my neck hung a silver key in a black, velvet necklace. But from the key dripped dark crimson blood.

"It's beautiful," I whispered.

**I hope your enjoying my story so far :) Feel free to review!**


	4. The Girl in the Mirror

**Hi guys, it took me a while to write this chapter because I've been pretty busy over the past few days. I hope you enjoy it anyway ****J**** All characters belong to the talented Richelle Mead. **

Andre drove me and Lissa back home along with Dimitri and Christian. Lissa rambled excitedly on about some shopping trip that she had planned soon. Luckily she was so pumped up about it that she didn't care that I never answered her or even tried to chip in her never-ending stream of chattering. I probably wouldn't have been able to get a word in edgeways anyway.

Dimitri and myself had given our paintings in and we were given lot's of praise from Ms Karp. Thinking back to our rather crazy art teacher gave me the shivers. I didn't particularly like her. She was nice, but to over-bearing and in your face, not my kind of person.

"We're going in the games room," Andre announced once we were in the door. Me and Lissa didn't often go in there anyway.

"So, did you like your first day?" Lissa asked, placing her feet delicately into her fluffy white slippers.

"It was alright," I muttered, shrugging off my jacket. I changed into some pale blue, loose shorts and a comfy white vest top with silver jewels spread across it creating a spider web.

"I always did love that top," Lissa commented, casting an adoring eye over the vest. I looked down and tugged at the bottom of it absently.

"So do I," I murmured.

I didn't feel like talking. I just wanted to relax, on my own, in some peace and quiet. But with Lissa around, and then the boys downstairs getting rather excited over some racing game on the Xbox, there was no such luck.

"Hey can I give you a make-over?" Lissa asked, noticing my need to not speak. Whenever she saw me being a little quieter than usual she would give me a make-over. Then she had something to do, and I could still stay quiet. It was a peaceful thing. It kept us both nice and calm.

"Sure," I answered slightly more cheerfully. Lissa began by painting my nails a pretty red colour. Whilst she worked I settled down to sift through all the things that had happened today.

Most importantly, there was my small break down in art. It was lucky Dimitri was there to yank me out of it. When it had happened before, which had been frequent, I had just got worse and worse until I had to relive the whole memory before it would let me go. Then, after that, I would have a panic attack, then I would faint, then I would eventually get better again. But after each time I would get more and more nervous, and then in turn, be more prone to having yet another one. It was a vicious circle.

Secondly, there was Dimitri. That strange, quiet, yet beautiful boy I seemed so intent on getting to know. I wanted to know what made him act the way he did. I wanted to get to the bottom of his deep dark secret, because I knew there was one. I didn't only understand that he had a dark secret, he had worked out that I do too. His drawing of me had told me that much. But was he so intent on discovering my darkest secret as I was his?

"Don't they look gorgeous?" Lissa suddenly broke my silent, thoughtful musings. I examined my freshly painted red nails. The sun hit them and created glowing lines of bright light on their glossy surface.

"Now, I want to stick these on," Lissa lifted up a packet of stick on black roses designed specifically for nails. I rolled my eyes. Lissa had always loved to buy me things that had something to do with roses, I however didn't like it so much.

"Awww please Rose!" she begged in her whiney two year old voice. She then looked at me with wide, innocent jade green eyes and battered her eyelashes a couple of times.

"Don't look at me like that Liss," I groaned.

"Like what?" she asked in a squeaky voice. Her bottom lip fell out like two year old's would.

"Like you're a little kid," I replied, beginning to feel my lips twitch into an amused smile. Her expression was rather cute, but funny at the same time.

"Fine," I grumbled eventually. Lissa stuck the roses expertly onto each of my nails and then admired her work with a satisfied smile on her face.

"Rose! Lissa! Dinner's ready!" we heard Mrs Dragomir's voice echo up the stairs to us. With a few blows on my nails to make sure they were dry enough to not get damaged we hurried down the stairs, racing eachother. I won as usual. Lissa was slightly taller but wasn't as used to exercise as me. She was still as thin as a rake though.

We burst into the vast dining room and Mrs Dragomir rolled her eyes as she saw how fast we had been travelling. Still, she gave us that usual warm, motherly smile as we sat ourselves down at the table.

Lissa stuck her tongue out at me when she was comfortably seated opposite me. I pulled my own face at her. She then pulled the skin below her eyes down and rolled her eyes up so all you could see was the whites. I repressed the urge to squeal in disgust at her and instead laughed at our immaturity. I then stuck my thumbs in each corner of my mouth and then my index fingers in the corners of my eyes before pulling everything downwards and pulling faces at her like an idiot.

"Um, okay then," I heard a deep voice sound. I whipped round, pulling my hands away from my face to see Andre, Christian and Dimitri all walk in. Christian looked as though he was going to piss himself and Andre looked slightly weirded out. Dimitri however was smirking at my idiocy. Why couldn't they have come in earlier and seen Lissa make an idiot of herself instead of me! Dimitri dragged the chair out beside me and sat himself down. My stomach did a back flip and my heart rate increased dramatically.

"So what was with the face Rosie Posie?" Christian asked, entwining his hand with Lissa's. I scowled at him from across the table.

"Call me that again Sparky and I'll bite your nose off," I threatened.

Christian had received his name Sparky from me because of his strange obsession with fire. He always had a lighter or a box of matches in his pocket, not because he smoked, but just because he liked to see the flame dancing before him. Lissa thought his creepy obsession was 'cute.' I thought it was just downright weird, and dangerous. The amount of time Lissa had had to patch up his burns, and the burns he had inflicted on other people which were apparently 'accidents.'

Lissa was always patching up people's wounds. She had told me that if she failed in becoming a beauty expert then she would become a nurse or something. I could see the joy on her face when she had finished patching up someone's wounds. She was good at it too, she stayed calm and knew exactly what she needed. She worked methodically and distracted you from whatever your wound was. She would make a good nurse.

"How was your first day then Rose?" Mrs Dragomir asked as she settled herself down at the end of the table.

"It was fine thank you, everybody was welcoming enough," I replied in a polite tone.

"And there was no trouble?" she double-checked.

"None at all," I replied before posting another mouthful of lasagne in my mouth.

We ate in a comfortable silence after that, before Sparky starting chattering about how he thrashed Andre at that game they had been playing earlier.

Dimitri remained silent. It was strange, I had never seen him here before. Today was the first day I had seen him in my life. I would have thought if he was such good friends with Andre and Christian that I would see him around more often.

When dinner was over Dimitri left. I heard Christian call after him "See you back here in a few months time then."

I spent the evening puzzling the comment over before eventually surrendering to my body's needs to sleep and collapsing into my bed.

"Rose, Rose I'm scared," I heard her murmur softly. Her hand was gripping tightly onto my arm and every time she whimpered her grip tightened.

"Let go of her," I heard that cold, calculating, commanding voice order. I couldn't look up, I didn't dare. Fear had me frozen to the spot. She wouldn't let go of my arm like her ordered, she too was frozen. Everything inside me was screaming to run, to leave her there and save myself. A small part of me told me to fight, to try and protect her. I should have pushed her behind me and punched him in the face, but instead I just stood there, a quivering wreck, waiting for him to take her.

I could hear the drip, drip, drip of water falling off of one of the roofs and hitting the dark, wet stone floor. The walls felt like they were closing in, shutting down any chance of me escaping.

The shadow started closing in on us until any light that was shining down on us had disappeared. That too had been destroyed and crushed by him. I felt her hand fall off of my upper arm and I heard her whimpers. I heard the sound of him loading the gun. That unmistakable, cold, click.

"Crap!" I heard myself yell. I sat up quickly and tried to regain my breath. My long, dark hair clung to my face in sweaty clumps. My hands were curled up into tight, clammy fists. My dreams were never good but it had been weeks since I had last had _that _dream.

"Rose?" I heard a sleepy voice whisper in the dark of the night. My head whipped round to see Lissa propping herself up with one arm, looking at me with droopy eyes.

"I'm fine Liss, just a weird dream, that's all," I assured her shakily.

"Do you want me to stay up?" she offered. She was barely awake.

"No Liss, you go back to bed," I insisted. She gave me one last long, concerned look before letting her head plop back onto the pillow.

I watched her until I saw her rate of breathing decrease and her tossing and turning subside into perfect stillness. She looked so vulnerable when she slept. She looked so vulnerable when she was awake though.

My body didn't want to go back to sleep and neither did my mind so I surrendered and plodded over to the en-suite. I flicked on the light and squinted as the bright light washed over me and made my eyes and even my head ache.

I wobbled over to the sink to wash my face. Above the sink was a mirror with a pale blue crystal frame around it.

I looked up into it and stared at the girl in the mirror. Her eyes were dark and dull. They had no depth, no nothing, they were just flat, and plain and lifeless. They weren't my eyes, they were someone else's, they had to be. The girl's cheeks were pale, and ghostly white. You could see the hollows of her cheekbones, they looked dark and ashy. Below her eyes were purplish, grey shadows of weariness. It almost looked as though she had been punched or something. Her hair was damp with sweat and hung limply around her face. She just wasn't me. She wasn't the me I remembered. She was a ghost, so did that mean the old me was dead?

**So what did you guys think? Review if you want to ;) Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.**


	5. Black Holes and Revelations

**I would have put this chapter up this morning but I didn't have the chance so sorry guys :D This chapter isn't very good but I really needed to write it. I hope you enjoy it anyway ;) Oh and thank you to the brilliant band Muse who keep my creative juices flowing and the name of this chapter belongs to one of their albums, it is not my creation :D**

"Are you okay?" Andre asked for the millionth time on the short trip to school. His concern was touching but it mostly irritated me right now.

"Yes Andre, I'm fine!" I snapped. My voice was a little harsher than normal, and I instantly felt bad. The car fell silent apart from the occasional groan from Lissa as she tried to pin her fringe back without it making her look slightly retarded.

We pulled into the parking lot and as soon as the car was at a standstill Lissa leapt out and went rushing over to the main block. She had fashion club this morning and she told me she wanted to be extra early so she had plenty of time to finish her main project.

I clambered out of the car slightly more slowly. I caught sight of my reflection in the window of the car and sighed. I still looked awful, even after the mini-make-over Lissa had performed on me this morning. The shadows of the dream still hadn't left my head and seemed intent on crowding me until they drove me over the edge.

I wandered round the back of the car to where Andre stood with Christian and Dimitri. My eyes fell on Dimitri instantly and for a few, brief seconds, his gaze fell on me too. I felt the heat rush to my cheeks and I looked down at the dry concrete beneath my feet.

"Hey Rosie Posie," Christian greeted with a teasing smile.

"Call me that again you motherfucker and I will kick your balls in," I growled menacingly. I noticed him pale ever so slightly but he still kept his sarcastic show.

"Oh, look whose back," I heard Andre suddenly announce.

Then I heard the unmistakable roar of a powerful, loud engine. I span round to see where all the noise was coming from. My eyes fell on a beautiful red mustang convertible. The driver had the top down and their bronze hair blew in the wind as they swung round into the car park, aiming for the space beside Andre's Honda. He was wearing shades and looked like a shallow celebrity, or a shallow celebrity wanna-be.

He turned off the engine and then hopped over the door before making his way over to us, a slight smirk on his pink lips. He looked sexy, very sexy. Not god-like sexy like Dimitri. But sexy enough to almost make me dribble. Even behind his shades I noticed his attention fall on me and his smirk grew a little more pronounced.

"Hello gorgeous," he greeted, halting in front of me. He took my left hand and placed a soft warm kiss on it. I felt a smile grow across my face.

"Hi, and who might you be?" I asked him seductively. I would always give as good as I get. _There's the Rose we all know and love, _mini-me commented.

"Adrian Ivashkov, it's a pleasure to meet you maa'm, and what might your name be?" he asked, putting on a scholarly accent.

"Rose Hathaway," I replied.

"So you finally decide to turn up then?" I could see the smile on Andre's face.

"Decided I might as well grace you with my presence," he dropped his gentlemanly façade and turned back to what must be his normal self.

"How was your 'holiday'?" Christian asked.

"Good, shame I had to come back," he answered with a sigh. "Although seeing this beautiful woman has considerably improved my day," he said with a flirtatious smile. I flashed him my man-eater smile before turning to the rest of the guys in the circle. Adrian slipped into the space beside me.

"I'm planning on having a home-coming party tomorrow night so you are welcome to come along," Adrian announced with a lazy smirk which I had gathered was his trademark smile.

"Adrian, you've only been on holiday," Dimitri pointed out. I jerked my gaze up to him. It was the first time I had heard him say anything this morning. Everybody else just seemed to do the talking for him.

"Yes but seeing as you lot have missed me so much I know you would want to have a party in honour of my return," Adrian shot back.

He then pulled off his sunglasses to reveal a gorgeous pair of emerald green eyes. He had just gone up in the hotness scale. I did not mind flirting with him one little bit.

As I relaxed into the guy's easy banter it was almost possible to forget the nightmare I had last night. But the important part of that statement is the almost. It was still lingering in my head. Little things about my surroundings, liked the odd puddle from a rain shower days ago, or the sound of talking and laughing in the distance, each of those things just reminded me of that dreadful memory.

I notice Dimitri throw me a few curious looks every now and then. He seemed concerned. As soon as I noticed it I instantly felt self-conscious. Did I really look that bad for a half stranger to notice my worries? I had a feeling that he would ask me about it in art. That would be one conversation with him I would not be looking forward to.

"It's time to go in Rose," Andre murmured in my ear, placing one hand on my shoulder comfortingly and taking me inside. I may get frustrated and angry at him sometimes, but he was the best non-blood related brother I could ever wish for.

I decided to stay silent in maths and not start any trouble with Stan today. I did not want to add my problems anymore if I could help it. I noticed though that it wasn't only my world that facing difficulties, Lissa's was too.

In maths her and Christian seemed a awkward. I could feel tension rising in the air around them. Mason could too. He asked me what was up with them but I didn't have a clue. Lissa hadn't mentioned anything and there was nothing that could have happened this morning because Lissa hadn't seen Christian that morning so far. I had a feeling Lissa would have a lot to say to me when we got back home tonight.

At break Adrian came and sat with us, also inviting Lissa to the party as she hadn't been with us when he had first asked. We had a bit of trouble persuading Andre to let her go, but eventually, with some arguing and blackmailing from myself, Lissa was allowed to go. Andre was such an overprotective person.

He was less protective over me, or at least he didn't show it with me, as I could fight and he knew it. But Lissa was just so thin, and weak and delicate, I became very over-protective with her too. She despised it.

Still, I was looking forward to the party. It would be the first bit of fun I would have in months. I didn't have anything interesting to wear but Lissa told me not to worry and that she had it sorted. Her promise to take care of my outfit worried me a little. I would never be able to squeeze into any of her stuff and none of it would suit me anyway. But if her plan falls through I at least have back-up dresses.

At lunch Natalie ventured over to my side of the bench, dragging Eddie around with her. We began chatting about some sandals that she bought at the weekend. Apparently they are "the cutest things ever to walk the earth!" I learned something new about Natalie today: she is very hard work. She talks and talks and talks and just when you have fully tuned out her nonsense she will ask you a question and you are just left looking like a complete social retard, not a good look.

Eventually English rolled around. My second day at my new school hadn't been too great. At least I still had art to look forward to. The prospect of English suddenly brightened when I saw Adrian come and take a seat beside me. So far he had been a lot of fun. A brilliant flirt and good-looking to top it off. I could see us becoming good friends.

Me, Mason and Adrian chatted excitedly about the party, whilst Dimitri stayed quiet. He completed all of his work and managed to listen in on our conversation the whole time. I noticed every time I made a joke the corner of his lips would twitch up, sending my heart into a flurry of excited beats. Luckily neither of the guys noticed my constant gazing at Dimitri.

When art finally arrived I breathed a sigh of relief. I had finally made it to the last lesson where I could just relax a little. Throughout the day I was constantly trying to make a joke or flirt, just to keep people happy and stop them worrying, but in art, with Dimitri, I felt I could just not say a word and it not be awkward. I could happily wallow in my grief and sort through my heaps of problems and him just silently and peacefully sit beside me. I also knew that if I had another flip out like I did yesterday he could yank me out of it. Somehow he knew the signs.

"Bad day?" Dimitri asked as I plopped myself into my seat after having retrieved a pencil, as I was too mentally retarded to remember my own.

"Understatement of the year," I grumbled. But sat beside him made my day improve. Only slightly, but it did improve. He just had that effect on me.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked in a low whisper. God his voice sounded sexy when he used it like that. I just wanted to eat it up, if it was possible to eat up a sound.

"I'd prefer to suffer in silence," I replied, doodling on the corner of my paper, trying to distract me from how close he sat to me, and how good he smelled, I would eat up that scent too.

"It's not good to bottle things up you know," he pointed out. I watched as he wrote his name in the top left corner of his page. His writing was beautifully eloquent and sophisticated. My clumsy scribble felt extremely inadequate beside it. I made a mental note to try and improve my handwriting when I was around him.

"You bottle things up," I pointed out bravely. My heart was thudding in my chest as I nervously awaited his response.

"That's different," he tried to end the conversation. It was a hopeless attempt. I wouldn't be lead off of a scent just like that. I knew this conversation was going to lead me into a deeper understanding of Dimitri. An understanding that I so desperately wanted but I didn't quite know why.

"How is it?" I challenged. Our voices were quiet so that nobody would hear our conversation. Not that anyone paid any attention to us nestled in the back corner of the room by the window.

"You have plenty of people around you who you can trust, who you can open up to," he muttered. It felt weird that we barely knew eachother yet we were having a conversation that it takes some people years to have with another person. A friend who they may have known for decades.

"You do too, you have Andre, Christian," I pointed out. He pulled a sceptical face and I frowned. My doodling had now long since been abandoned, he had my full attention, as usual.

"Andre and Christian have enough of their own shit to deal with, they don't need mine as well," he replied with a hopeless sigh. I noticed that Ms Karp was dreadfully late. Ten minutes of the lesson had already passed, but then, she struck me as the type of person who would be late to things. Still, I wasn't complaining, it gave me and Dimitri more time.

"So you do trust them?" I pressed. From that earlier look on his face I got the impression that he didn't. I trusted them, well not so much Christian, he was too much like myself, but I trusted Andre a fair bit, but that's because he was my unofficial brother.

"They are my best friends, but that doesn't necessarily mean I trust them," he spoke, glancing at me briefly with those gorgeous brown eyes.

"So who do you trust?" I asked, swallowing each piece of information he fed me very carefully.

"Nobody," he answered simply. I noticed a slight edge to his voice, but I couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was. There was just an edge.

"Not even yourself?" I pushed. I didn't trust myself. My temper was too lethal and my emotions too volatile for me to trust myself. I didn't trust a single thing that I did. That didn't exactly help my life's troubles.

"I would never trust myself," he answered, his voice firmer this time.

"Funny, I was thinking the same thing about myself," I mused grimly and just as our conversation ended Ms Karp came bursting through the door, arms full with paper.

As Andre drove me and Lissa home I mused over today's events. I had met Adrian Ivashkov for the first time today. He was charmer but had the makings to be a great friend. He received a slightly odd reception from the rest of the group, but overall, he seemed to be a nice guy. Also I had learned that school can be a bitch when you have had a night of very little sleep. Although, I kind of knew that already, from experience. But most importantly, I had made an important discovery with Dimitri. He trusted nobody. And also, I was right about him having some hidden secret, but yet, I knew that already too. Still, it was nice to know that my skills at reading people were just as good as they used to be. So Dimitri trusted nobody, and especially, not himself. One thing we had in common with eachother, a complete lack of trust. Except, I did trust a few people, Lissa and Andre. But that's as far as my capabilities to trust people went.

But it wasn't just that that was the most important thing I had learned today. I had also learned, that in the two days I had known him, I had developed the slightest attraction to Dimitri. Okay maybe it was a bit more than the slightest attraction, but for now, that is what I would like to tell myself it was. It made me feel better. As if my life wasn't complicated enough? I now had a boy muscling his way into my hectic maze of a head. But he was gorgeous, and mysterious, and beautiful, and strong, the type of guy every almost every girl dreamed of.

When we arrived home I tried to coax out of Lissa what the big deal was with her and Christian. She insisted it was nothing before keeping to herself for the rest of the night. I barely saw her until we were getting ready for bed. And by then she was already clambering into bed when I was still changing into my pyjamas. Her mood worried me but I tried to push it to the back of my head, I didn't need anything else on my plate right now. I was barely managing to scrape a decent state of living right now.

That night my dreams changed for the better. It wasn't that much better from my normal dreams, it could still be classed as a nightmare, but considering what I was usually subjected to each night, it seemed positively pleasant.

I was running through I wood. At first I thought I was just casually running for the hell of it, something I occasionally did do, but I quickly realised there was someone in front of me. Someone I was chasing. I was trying to catch up with them. It was dark and I could only just make out distinguishing features about them. They were tall, amazingly tall, with brown, shoulder length hair. I could see their defined muscles bulging over a dark cotton t-shirt as they ran. Then it quickly registered in my head as to who this person was.

Dimitri. Who else could it be? As soon as I realised I called his name. He didn't turn round. He seemed oblivious. I called out again, this time slightly frustrated.

CLICK. My world started spinning, or my dream world at least. I knew that cold, harsh click. It sent chills racing down my spine. It made my heart freeze with fear. The gun. The sound of the gun clicking. Once the trigger was pulled the bullet would hold the power of life or death. Slightly to one side and I would still be alive, but pointed directly at me, I would be dead.

I pushed my legs faster. I kicked up dirt and leaves behind me and they hit the backs of my legs as I ran. I felt as though, as soon as I reached Dimitri, I would be safe. He could protect me. He would always protect me. At least that's what it seemed like in my dream. I didn't know if the real Dimitri would protect me. I would like to think he would.

"Dimitri!" I wailed into the night air. I kept on hearing the gun clicking, over and over again, like a broken record.

"Dimitri!" I screamed again, but he still refused to acknowledge me.

"DIMITRI!" this time my scream had doubled in intensity and loudness.

Suddenly he span around to face me. I was frozen in my tracks. As I skidded to a halt mud flew up into my face.

"It's your fault," was all he whispered. Then the world of the dream left me and I woke up.

**It's not great I know but feel free to review and stuff, they honestly do improve my day! ;)**


	6. Friends?

**This chapter is mostly a filler chapter but it was good fun to write! I hope you enjoy it ;)**

It was the day of the party. Lissa was trembling with excitement when we first got up. I didn't want to think what she would be like on our way home from school. She still promised me that she had my outfit sorted. I wanted to be excited like her, but I just felt drained, both physically and mentally.

My dream from last night seemed intent on bugging my mind for every single waking moment. I remember the sound of my footfalls, the sound of the gun clicking over and over again, the screams that he didn't hear. The screams that nobody heard. Then the sound of my heavy breathing as I slid to halt, mud spraying into my face, making me squint. Then Dimitri, tall beautiful Dimitri, spinning round to me, his face cold and harsh, telling me that it was all my fault.

"Hey gorgeous, all ready for the party?" Adrian greeted as we swung into the carpark. He rested his arms on the frame of the window, as I had had mine wound down to get some air.

"I guess so," I muttered, trying a smile. Christian was muttering something in Andre's ear which made him smile and his green eyes sparkle. But on my side of the car, behind Adrian, stood Dimitri, tall dark and irresistible. My dream hadn't done his godly good looks justice.

"What's up missy?" Adrian asked, his face turning concerned, but that smile was still in place, only fractionally smaller.

"Just, just a bad dream," I muttered, my gaze flicking up to Dimitri. Our gazes met only briefly before Adrian suddenly opened the door for me, forcing me to climb out and face what I knew was going to be, and awful day.

I wasn't wrong in my prediction. Stan gave me a five minute detention for answering back in lesson. I can't even remember what I said to him, but at least it meant that I didn't have to put on a happy show for my little circle of friends.

I had to admit, despite being the newbie, I had an awful lot of friends. There was Andre's gang, then Mason and Abby Badica and Camille Conta, although I don't think Camille likes me that much, still, she always goes' with me for teams in PE. So at least I wasn't a social outcast like some newbie's could be.

In PE we moved onto cross-country. Thankfully, all the running I had did back at my mother's house had paid off because I won the race. I was pleased to say that I was kicking everybody's asses in that lesson.

The day moved painfully slow after that. Natalie sat beside me again in lunch and didn't shut up, not once. I eventually just ignored everything she said, even all the questions, in the hope that she'll take the hint that I don't really like her and just sit back on the other side of the table.

I also noticed at lunch today Dimitri seemed a little more relaxed. To my joy, and amazement, he sat beside me in lunch. It seemed that despite us barely knowing eachother, he felt more comfortable around me. Maybe it was because we both knew eachother had hidden secrets, and because of what we had talked about the previous day. He didn't say anything but just smiled at me. Only once, but that smile set my whole world alight with happiness. That one smile chased the dream away and all of the dreams before it. That smile made me feel hopeful, more hopeful than I had felt in a long time.

In English Adrian started dreaming up all the clothing possibilities that I could be wearing that evening. I smiled along and flirted to keep him amused. Although at the end of the lesson he whispered in my ear that he would prefer to see me wearing nothing. He then winked at me once before sweeping out of the classroom in a rather dramatic fashion.

But by the time I had arrived to the classroom in art, all memories of the day so far just slipped easily out of my mind. It was like a weight being lifted from my shoulders and it sent a small, weird looking smile spread across my face. As I settled down in my seat beside Dimitri he noticed my change in mood and frowned, but also smiled slightly at the same time.

"Hi," I greeted breezily.

"Hello Rose," he replied. His Russian accent seemed to sound sexier than ever. I seriously was considering trapping it in a jar and then changing it into some sort of food or liquid for me to consume.

"Right class, today is going to be a relaxed lesson, so draw whatever you would like but focus on the techniques we have used over the past few weeks," Ms Karp announced. I liked the sound of that lesson.

"Are you going to the party tonight?" I asked Dimitri, settling down to my work. I was going to draw the scene of my dream last night, in the hope that it might shed some light on what was really happening.

"Yes, I'm gathering you are," Dimitri answered, giving me sidelong glance.

"Yep, Adrian won't shut up about it," I sighed.

"Be careful of him Rose," Dimitri's voice caught me off guard. It had a sudden tense edge to it. I glanced up at him in surprise. It took him a while to drag his chocolate brown eyes down to mine.

"Why?" I asked him. Dimitri looked thoughtful for a second, as though he was trying to construct his answer in the best possible way.

"Adrian is a player, he has a long list of girls behind him that he has left broken-hearted," Dimitri explained briefly, his eyes never once leaving my own.

"Well I don't like him in that way so I won't be joining that list," I answered defensively. I had already guessed that Adrian would be a bit of a player with his attitude, but I would not let him play me like he had all those other girls. I had experience dealing with guys like him. It is possible to not be romantically involved with them and just be friends, despite what everybody says.

"You say that now but a few months down the line it will be a different story," Dimitri assured me in a confident voice.

"How can you be so certain? You barely know me," I challenged.

"I know you a lot better than some, your not that difficult to read Rose," Dimitri replied with a sigh, focusing back on his work intently, but still listening to whatever my reply may be. I felt my cheerful mood slowly deteriorate.

"I could say the same about you," I muttered huffily before turning to my own work.

"You probably could," I heard him murmur from beside me. We settled down into a peaceful silence after that, drawing our own individual scenes.

"Dimitri?" I suddenly asked, breaking the silence.

"Hmmm?"

"Do you know what's up with Christian and Lissa?" I questioned. Maybe Christian had mentioned something to him, Lissa refused to tell me anything.

"She's your best friend, why don't you ask her?" he murmured, staring intently on some thin black line that he was curving into a spiral towards the top of his page. I found his concentrating face amazingly cute. I willed his tongue to peep out of his mouth to just finish the look off. That would just make him ten times more cute, and gorgeous. _Your getting distracted Rose, _mini-me piped up.

"I did, she didn't want to talk about it," I replied in a subdued tone.

"Well Christian hasn't mentioned anything, I tend not to get involved in relationships, I mess them up," he muttered. I was amazed that he had actually willingly confessed something to me without me having to push it out of him.

"I'm sure you don't, I bet the right girl just hasn't come along yet," I couldn't believe I was counselling Dimitri, the most gorgeous guy you could ever lay eyes on, about his relationships. _How do you know he's not in a relationship already? _mini-me suddenly questioned. I felt my eyes considerably widen and my heart plummeted to my feet. Shit! What if he already had a girlfriend? I couldn't fancy another girl's guy. That was just wrong, and meant more trouble for my already fragile emotional state.

"I do mess them up, that's why I haven't had one for the past three years," he muttered beside me, ignoring my 'right girl' comment. I small part of my brain wished I could be that 'right girl' but I quickly silenced it. It was just a stupid schoolgirl crush, nothing more. I had had plenty of them.

"Three years?" I echoed. I barely managed six months before having a new guy. Although that had changed once I had moved out of my mother's house. Now I really didn't want a boyfriend, well, it depended on the guy.

"It's not that difficult, most girls around here are just full of hot air," Dimitri said with an exasperated sigh, looking around the class and dropping his pencil onto his paper.

"I could say the same about the guys," I muttered. There was some really nice guys here, like Mason and Andre and Dimitri, and at a push even Christian. But there seemed to be some real dickheads here. The players who were on the football team and only thought about their trousers. Adrian was a player but he was a nice guy with it, some of those guys that I saw parading round weren't.

"Do you think I'm a slut?" I suddenly asked. Where the fuck did that come from? I didn't even realise I had said it until the words were out of my mouth and Dimitri had turned to me with a confused, and almost shocked look on his beautiful face.

"Your not a slut Rose, you flirt a hell of a lot and show off your body but your not a slut," Dimitri answered honestly. I nodded at him and frowned at myself. I could be such a complete and utter twat at times. But Dimitri didn't seemed that fazed anymore about my question and focused back on his drawing.

I felt that today we had relaxed a lot more around eachother. We actually felt like friends now instead of two people who only knew eachother through their other friends. It was a nice feeling. I had wanted to gain an understanding of Dimitri, but I also wanted to gain his friendship. And now, I think I had.

Art finished shortly after that idiotic question and Dimitri helped me pack my stuff away to my surprise. My cheerful mod quickly returned. Then, when he walked out of the classroom I noticed him wait by the doorway. At first I thought he was meeting Andre of Christian or someone, but it was only until I walked out of the classroom and he joined me that I realised it was me he was waiting for. I couldn't help but let out a shocked gasp.

"I think Lissa wants something from me," I murmured as Lissa came running across the field, her face lit up with a huge smile. Dimitri chuckled softly from beside me and the sound wrapped around me like a velvet blanket. I wanted it on CD to play on repeat in the car, although that might be a bit stalkerish, and freaky.

"Rose! I finished your dress!" she gasped, running straight into me and throwing her arms around me. I glanced at Dimitri and gave him a confused look. His eyes sparkled with amusement.

"My dress?" I echoed, slowly untangling myself from her embrace.

"Yeah, it's gorgeous, your going to wear it tonight!" she exclaimed. I see I had no choice about my outfit for tonight.

"Is that what you've been making in your little fashion club thingy?" I deduced with a smirk on my face.

"Yeah, I originally designed it for me but looking through material samples I decided that it would look best in black and of course that doesn't suit me so I changed it's measurements for you, it's all yours now!" she explained, running out of breath at the end of the sentence and panting.

"Can I see it?" I asked, eyeing up the bag that could see it was hidden inside.

"Nope, you can see it when you get changed tonight," she answered. Her jade green eyes were gleaming with happiness. I had gathered that whatever her a Christian's blip was had passed, otherwise she wouldn't be so happy as she was now.

"Uh Rose?" I heard a low voice interrupt mine and Lissa's little hugging fest.

"Um yeah Dimitri?" I stammered. I hadn't expected him to start talking to me just then. It was usually me who started the conversations.

"I have to head home so I'll see you tonight," he muttered. I noticed his awkwardness and it made my heart flutter. He just looked so adorable. I wanted to hug him and tell him his awkwardness was amazingly cute.

"Sure thing, see ya," I answered with a broad smile. I watched him half smile back before spinning around and heading off towards the main gates. I quickly gathered he must walk home instead of drive.

"That was awkward," I suddenly heard Lissa pipe up. I had forgotten all about her in mine and Dimitri's awkward little goodbye.

"It was a bit," I replied, still staring off at the direction that Dimitri had gone in.

"Cute though regardless, you blushed by the way," she said with a knowledgeable smirk. I shot her a frustrated look. I did not want her knowing about my insignificant crush and then winding me up about it at every available moment.

"You know, I've never seen him so relaxed around someone," Lissa commented. I shot her another glare.

"No seriously, I'm not teasing you or anything, he is never usually that relaxed around people, like I've said before, he's a very socially awkward person, but around you he just seems so much more open," Lissa mused thoughtfully. I lightly slapped her on the arm before walking over to Andre's Honda and clambering inside.

Once we got home we grabbed some pizza that Mrs Dragomir had ordered and hurried up to our room. We never saw Mr Dragomir that much because his job meant that he had to work extremely long hours. The only time we saw him was at some weekends or very early in the mornings if we were lucky. He was some type of lawyer or something, and was apparently at the top of his game. That's why the Dragomir's were so minted.

"So do you think he's good looking?" Lissa asked whilst arranging her make-up on her desk. We had the make-up desk, the hair desk and then by the long mirror on the wall was where we were going to get changed and sort out shoes and things like that. Lissa's organisation skills always came in handy.

"Well who doesn't?" I answered her with a roll of my eyes.

"Good point, but do you like him?" she interrogated.

"Of course I like him, he's a friend," I muttered.

"No but do you _like _him like him?" she pressed. I turned from where stood over the hair desk, arranging the straighteners and curlers.

"I don't know Liss! I barely know him!" I threw my hands up in exasperation. _Lying to your best friend Rose, bad idea, _mini-me interrupted. I silenced her quickly. I did like Dimitri more than a friend but I didn't want Lissa to know that just yet. She'd tease me and then analyse his every move around me. I just couldn't be bothered to deal with that.

"So that's not a no!" I could hear the excitement building in her voice.

"No Liss, it's not a no," I said with a sigh "But it's not a yes!" I quickly added.

"Hmmm," was all Lissa replied. Once that little conversation was over I went and took a shower that I so desperately needed.

Standing in the shower, being pummelled by the beautifully hot water calmed my tense muscles. But for once my muscles weren't tensed in fear or me being panicked by something. They were tense because I was so excited about tonight's party. When I had found out that Dimitri was going my excitement shot up. I was looking forward to seeing him again. _Definitely a crush, _mini-me took great delight in pointing out to me. I told her to shut up yet again before clambering out of the shower.

"Okay, what's happening with my hair?" I asked Lissa after having wrapped a fluffy red towel around my soaked body.

"I was thinking we should curl it, make it look soft and sexy," Lissa mused, squinting her eyes at my wet hair that was plastered to my face in wet, dripping clumps.

"I should dry it then," I murmured. She nodded.

I headed over to the hair desk and flicked on the hair dryer whilst Lissa went for a shower. Drying my hair was a long process because of how thick and long it was. But when it was dry and had had something interesting done to it, it looked beautiful. Even if I do say so myself!

Once my hair was dried I stared around the room, wondering what to do next. Lissa always prepared me for parties, she was an expert at it, so I decided to wait until she was out of the shower before taking further action. My eyes scanned the room and I caught sight of the black bag that held my dress inside. It was sitting all by itself by the door, just waiting for me to go and join it and see what lay inside that bag.

"Don't even think about it," Lissa's voice made me jump and I span round to where he stood in the doorway of the en-suite, a lavender coloured towel wrapped around her tall, slim body. My shoulders sagged in defeat. Would I ever get to see that dress?

We both put on dressing gowns and Lissa began the long process of carefully curling my hair. We weren't going for ringlets, just soft, sexy waves. Once Lissa had curled my hair she span me round to look in the mirror. It looked gorgeous. Sleek, silky, shiny and most importantly, sexy. I was glad my hair had behaved, I wanted to look my best for Dimitri.

"Okay, make-up and then I'll get myself ready," Lissa muttered, leading me over to where all the make-up sat. Lissa had so much make-up. I only had some mascara and eyeliner. She had everything. You could set up a shop with all the make-up she owned, and probably all the clothes.

Lissa went for the smoky eyes look which complemented my dark features perfectly. She gave me cats eyes with this brilliant liquid eyeliner that looked so easy to use. She then slicked on some red lip-gloss that made my lips stand out before deciding I was ready.

Watching Lissa doing her hair and then applying her make-up was like watching a wizard perform a spell. It was amazing! She just slicked on the different types of make-up and it all looked perfect within seconds. She didn't once make a mistake, or I didn't notice at least, and her hair and make-up was finished within minutes.

She had applied some icy blue eyes shadow and then some sparkly liquid eyeliner before slicking on some delicate pink lip-gloss. Her beautiful platinum blonde hair had been piled up onto her head into a beautiful bun. She had kept her fringe back by using a thin, delicate silver crystal head band that looked a little like a tiara. She looked like a princess. Princess Vasilisa Dragomir.

"Can I see my dress now?" I whined once she was finished. I noticed a smug smile creep across her face.

"I'm getting changed first and then you can see your dress," she decided. She got changed in the bathroom and when she came out in a gorgeous icy blue dress her Princess image was perfected. She looked beautiful. Her ice blue dress came to just below her knees and fell beautifully off her slim, narrow body.

"You look awesome Liss, Sparky won't be able to keep his hands off you," I complimented. A broad smile spread over her face when I mentioned him. Yep, the blip was definitely over. At least that was one less thing to worry myself over.

"And Dimitri won't be able to keep his hands off you once your ready!" she told me excitedly before rushing over the mysterious black bag. Over the past few hours this bag had already gained a legendary status because it held my elusive dress.

Slowly she pulled the dress out. It was silky and black and would come to just above my knees. It flared out slightly at the bottom and across the top was pretty little clear jewels that sparkled in the light of the room. It could definitely stick in all the right places. It was gorgeous. I never doubted Lissa's amazing fashion skills but seeing this dress just confirmed the fact that she could make it as a designer.

"Oh my god Lissa you are fucking amazing!" I gasped, my hands flying to my mouth. I rushed over to the dress and took it quickly out her hands to examine it myself. The material felt soft and slippery on my fingers. I was pretty certain Dimitri was going to love it.

"You like?" she asked in some weird accent.

"I love it!" I replied breathlessly. I quickly rushed to the bathroom to try it on. It fit perfectly and clung to my body in exactly the right places like I had guessed it would. It showed a decent amount of cleavage and made my legs look brilliant. I was definitely looking forward to turning up at the party wearing this little gem.

I stepped out of the en-suite and Lissa's face lit up with joy as she saw her dress finished and on a person. I had tried on many of the clothes she had made but this was by far the best thing she had ever created.

"You look perfect," she told me.

We added jewellery to our outfits. I had a small silver locket on a chain and Lissa had a pretty little tear drop shaped diamond necklace that Christian had bought her for her birthday last year. That was before they had even started dating.

Filling up our bags with make-up and perfume we were ready to go.

**The next chapter should be more interesting because it's the party but I hoped you liked this one ;) Any reviews would be appreciated ;)**


	7. Spiked

**Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've been really busy recently. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this chapter and all characters belong to the brilliant Richelle Mead!**

Andre drove us to the party in Mrs Dragomir's car, a black Honda Civic. It looked a bit like a wanna-be assassins car. At least it was cooler than Andre's FRV. He may love his FRV but it looks like a car for a family, not for an eighteen year old boy.

As soon as I stepped out the car I began shivering. Spring had sprung but it was still cold, especially at night. I could see my breath turning to steam in the night air. It flickered out in all directions like water freezing into pretty patterns. I wished I had bought a coat but then that would have completely ruined the outfit.

We walked down the gravel driveway of the Ivashkov's house. It was massive, maybe even larger than Lissa's house, which was the size of a small mansion. We crunched down the driveway, which was especially difficult in heels.

"Rose!" I heard Adrian's voice echo into the night. He came rushing down the driveway. He wore a nicely fitting black shirt with black dress trousers. He looked hot, but I couldn't wait to see Dimitri.

Adrian wrapped his black leather coat around me as we headed down the long driveway. I could hear the infectious steady boom of bass echoing out from the house. All the lights on the top floors were switched off but on the bottom floors I could see a mix of lights in all of the colours in the rainbow. It sure was going to be a great party.

As Adrian walked me forward, arm draped around my shoulder, I glanced back to Lissa who walked with her brother. It wasn't the first party she had been to but it was definitely the largest. I could see the worry in her face. Her jade green eyes were wide as she took in the size of the house and all the flashing lights.

"You look gorgeous by the way," Adrian murmured in my ear softly. I flashed him my man-eater smile and he lapped it all up affectionately. Still, my heart fluttered in excitement because I knew I would see Dimitri soon. I also knew that I would spend most of my night with him because our of the workings of our circle of friends.

We stepped inside and a beautifully warm, yet massive room spread out in front of me.

"No hallway?" I guessed. Adrian shook his head with a smile.

"Hallways are pointless," he muttered with a smirk in place as he surveyed his party. In here there was sofas set up around the room, crowding round tables which were almost overflowing with glasses of drink. A few couples were nestled in the corners, making out, and then a few more sociable groups were casually gathered around on the sofas around the tables, slurping away at their alcohol and laughing animatedly.

I scanned the room for Dimitri and quickly saw him appearing from the back of the room. He stepped out from a room and a bright light followed him that lit up the room he had just been in. I could see a bottle of beer in his hand and he looked so devilish as he smirked at Christian who sat on one of the sofas around on of the tables.

He wore a loose fitting black shirt that had been buttoned down only slightly to reveal a slender piece of his tanned, muscular chest. He also wore dark denim jeans. I could see some black converse peeping out from underneath the jeans. He was officially now my hero. I adored converse!

Adrian towed me over to where Christian and Dimitri now sat. I was going to sit on the empty sofa with Adrian and Andre but then I felt Lissa's small, cold hand push my back in the direction of the sofa that Dimitri sat on. It was enough to make me stumble forward in my killer heels and collapse onto the sofa beside him. Adrian squeezed into the gap beside me, his arm wrapped around my waist. I hope he didn't think that we were boyfriend and girlfriend. I didn't need the stresses of a relationship right now.

I noticed Dimitri cast a long look down at my body and I felt a little flutter of joy in my heart. I felt my cheeks flushed red but thanks to the flashing, changing colour of the lights, nobody should have notice, except from Lissa who gave me a knowing little smirk from across the table. Once in Christian's arms she was perfectly calm and happy. Even though I hated sharing my best friend with him, they were good for eachother. They bought out the good things in eachother.

"Do you want a drink?" Eddie suddenly offered. I hadn't even noticed him and Natalie sat on one of the sofa's with Andre.

"Um sure, a beer would be nice," I answered with a smile. I notice him quickly rake his eyes over my body before jerking his gaze to Lissa.

"Um, could I just have some lemonade please?" Lissa asked. She looked vulnerable again. Lissa was never one to really drink much but I had a feeling as the night wore on she would get more and more confident.

"Sure thing," Eddie replied before darting off. Natalie wore an emerald green satin dress that clung to her rather shapeless body limply. She just didn't have the right figure to pull off a dress like that. She couldn't fill it out properly so it just hung in all the wrong places. I felt sorry for her though. I doubted there was much that could have really coped with her body and still make her look elegant.

"You okay?" I asked Dimitri once the others had settled into some conversation. I knew he would be less quiet than normal tonight with all the alcohol and excitement of the party but still didn't want to make him feel awkward.

"I'm fine, you?" he returned my question.

"I'm good, mostly excited," I answered with a beaming smile. He smiled back slightly and my heart skipped a beat. _Definitely a crush, _mini-me murmured. I shouted at her in my head to shut up and thankfully, she did.

Letting my eyes wander around the dance floor I saw a fair amount of gyrating bodies, laughing and smiling at their friends, caught up in the infectious beat of the music. I would have to get on that dance floor soon, and I was determined to get Dimitri up with me. He had to loosen up a little.

Eddie returned with our drinks and I took my cold beer from him and took a small sip. The taste flowed through my mouth and I licked any traces from my lips and savoured it for a moment. It had been a while since alcohol had touched my lips. Glancing across at Lissa I could still see she was nervous, even with Christian by her side. I vowed to not let myself drink too much tonight. I wanted to keep an eye on her.

"So how is everybody?" Adrian asked, twisting a lock of my hair around his finger. I eyed up the lock of hair carefully. I was pretty sure he was getting the wrong message.

"I'm good but I wanna dance, come on guys," I stood up quickly, and Adrian's finger left the lock of hair. Dimitri trailed behind me and Adrian was left having a brief chat with Eddie. Lissa hurried up to my side, her heels clicking against the floor.

"What happened there?" Lissa whispered quietly in my ear.

"I didn't want him getting the wrong message," I murmured back to her.

"Just cling to Dimitri or something, that'll put him off the scent," I noticed the smirk on her face as she said this.

"I don't think Dimitri wants me clinging to him," I muttered back.

"You sure?" she called as she stepped back into Christian's arms. Her eyebrows were both raised and a smile on her delicate pretty face. I rolled my eyes at her and shuffled my way over to where Dimitri stood.

Everybody had sort of divided themselves into couples. Even Andre had Camille Conta clinging from him. Some people just stood together as friends, like me and Dimitri, and others were full on couples. Our group started dancing and Lissa pulled my hand and we twirled around together, laughing the whole time.

I then felt a new hand on my own. Someone pulled me up to them and I found myself looking up into a pair of emerald green eyes.

"If you wanted a dance Adrian all you had to do was ask," I told him with a smirk. I was just trying to not lead him on and yet here I was flirting with him. Dimitri's words from yesterday echoed in my head and I felt my gaze flutter up to him. He was giving me a warning look and I nodded at him once. I wanted him to know I understood where he was coming from, but I wanted to flirt too.

We danced around, with me and Lissa swapping guys every now and then. Natalie clung to Eddie the whole time until I wormed my way in to have a quick dance with him. He'd never get a chance to dance otherwise.

Lissa had made it so that eventually I had made my way round the circle before stopping at Dimitri. By the time I stood before him I was puffing. Dancing with all those different guys made me thirsty, and pretty tired.

"You want a drink?" he offered. Saved by the need of water. I nodded and smiled and then he began walking in the direction of what I had assumed was the kitchen. I didn't known if I should follow him or not and I shot Lissa a desperate glance. She nodded in his direction and smiled. Without any further delay I hurried across the dance floor after him and into the bright kitchen.

It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust but it was a relief to be away from the relentless thumping of the bass. It was empty in here apart from us a nice and quiet.

"What do you want to drink?" he asked, standing behind the bar in the middle of the kitchen. I sat myself down on a stool opposite him, relieved to take the weight off my feet. These heels were taking their toll on me.

"Could I just have a glass of water?" I asked him. I was determined to keep my promise to not drink too much tonight for Lissa's sake. Dimitri raised an eyebrow at my request. How come he could do that trick and I couldn't? That wasn't fair, cool, but still not fair.

"I don't want to drink too much, Lissa seems a little uptight and I don't want anything to happen with her," I replied honestly. He nodded and poured me glass of water. I noticed him slip a slice of lime onto the rim of the glass and also drop a straw in and then pass the drink across the counter to me. I smiled at his little add-ons.

"My feet kill," I groaned, taking a sip of the drink. I sat and let it wash the dry feeling in my throat away.

"That's what you get for wearing those killer heels," I felt myself blush slightly. He had taken the time to notice my footwear. I felt honoured in an odd sort of way.

"Your okay, you've got converse on, you don't have anything to worry about," I shot back with a sly smile.

"Well I'm not going to turn up in drag now am I?" he replied, with an amused smirk rise across his face. I felt my own smile broaden in happiness.

"That would be something I would like to see," I replied, taking another slurp of my drink. He rolled his eyes at me.

"I'm glad you don't know my sister, you two would be evil to me," he commented as he went and grabbed himself a glass of water. I noticed he did add on the extras that he did to my drink.

"You have a sister?" I echoed as he sat down opposite me again.

"Two, and a nephew who everyone says is exactly like me," he said. I could see the fond smile growing across his face. I felt a pang of jealousy. I never had any brothers or sisters when I was growing up. I was left alone with my bitch of a mother. Our family was less than perfect.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" he asked, his chocolate-kiss eyes fluttering up to me.

"Nope, only me," I muttered, my voice sounding withdrawn and foreign.

"What's your family like?" his accent was irresistible, I had to answer to it.

"I don't know my father and my mother is a total bitch, nothing else to it really," I explained in an offish tone.

"I'm sure she's not a total bitch," Dimitri tried.

"She is. She sent me away because she couldn't handle me anymore, she barely saw me so I don't know what she was talking about," I answered sharply. He looked slightly taken aback.

"I'm sure she had her reasons," he replied quietly.

"She just wanted to get rid of me, she doesn't have a single motherly instinct in her, she sent me away, she wants nothing to do with me, that's it," I told him coldly.

"Okay, do you want to go back out there?" he asked, swiftly changing the subject. I looked towards the doors that lead out onto the dance floor.

"Not particularly," I muttered glumly. I didn't want to be social anymore. I just wanted to stay with Dimitri. I felt safe with him. I felt like I could be myself. When I was with them I was constantly pretending I was the girl that I used to be, not the one that I am now.

"Neither do I," he said with a smile. "How about we go outside?" he suggested. I smiled and then nodded. Going outside sounded good.

I noticed him head towards a row of hooks. Hanging up on one of the hooks was his long, dark brown leather duster. He tugged it on and then opened another door that I had failed to notice when I first came into the room. Behind the door was a massive lawn with a fountain in the centre. Around the lawn was many trees a little shadowy passages weaving in between them. There was pretty little fairy lights dotted around and combined with the moonlight it provided plenty of light. A few couples were already sat outside, all seemed caught up in some intense conversation. But all of them looked deeply in love.

It didn't take long for me to notice Lissa and Christian sitting on the ledge of the fountain. Lissa was looking down, saying something to him. Her hands sat limply in her lap and Christian was listening intently with a serious expression on his face.

"Let's not go over there," I muttered steering Dimitri away with my arm.

"Why?"

"There having a conversation and I think it's pretty serious," I told him. He looked over to them and then back to where we were heading, one of the dark little shadowy passages between the trees. There was enough light from the fairy lights for us to still be able to see.

I sat down just inside the shadows, the fairy lights falling gently on my skin. Dimitri sat opposite in a little shard of light created by the moon and the fairy lights. One side of his face was pale and mysterious from the moonlight and the other side of his face was warm and glowing from the fairy light. His eyes glowed like dark, chocolate flames in his amazing face.

"It's nice to be away from the music," I murmured quietly. The sound of the bass was beginning to attack my head, pummelling against the walls of my skull, intent on giving me the bitchiest headache ever.

"Ralf's coming over," Dimitri growled. I noticed his face grow dark and angered. I sure would be scared if he directed that look at me. I followed his gaze to see a plump guy with flame coloured hair sauntering over to us. Following him was a fairly cute guy with dark blonde hair, although it looked darker in this light.

"Hey Rose, why don't you come back into the party?" the ginger guy, Ralf suggested.

"Excuse me, I don't believe I know you?" I replied in a frosty tone.

"Ralf Sarcozy," he held out a hand for me to shake. I pushed it away and made a disgusted face.

"It's just a name, means nothing to me, now why are you here?" I pressed, my voice becoming very firm.

"Adrian sent me, he wants you to come back into the party," I could smell the lie from a mile off. Ralf knew I was with Adrian earlier and he was using him to get me back into the party. All he wanted was to get into my knickers.

"Sure, and Johnny Depp is my dad, now piss off," I growled at him cattily.

"You heard her, go away," Dimitri added, his voice sounding ten times more threatening than my own. I noticed the pair of them pale slightly. I could tell that the blonde, silent guy wanted to go, but Ralf wouldn't be deterred.

"Ralf, Aaron, isn't it a bit cold out here for a pair of pussy's like you?" I heard Mason's voice sound from behind them. He placed his hands on their shoulders and span them round and raised an eyebrow.

"Your all talk and no action Ashford," Ralf started.

"Sorry Ralf, but I'm not gay, I don't want no action with you," Mason shot back. What a comeback!

With that Ralf and the Aaron guy began to slowly make their exit. Mason watched them over his shoulder before letting his stormy blue gaze fall on me.

"You want something to drink?" he offered. I had just had some water but I really did want something else to drink.

"Yes please Mase, some cola or something would be nice," I answered politely. I noticed that he didn't offer Dimitri anything to drink. It didn't look like Dimitri really cared as he stared at my face. I found myself blushing. Rose Hathaway never blushed.

Mason headed off and I was once again left alone with Dimitri, thankfully. He sat before me, just gazing at my face. I watched his dark eyes trace every centimetre of my skin. It was almost as though he was kissing it with his beautiful eyes.

"Are you cold?" he asked as I began to shiver. I was cold. The night air was freezing and wearing a rather short dress, it wrapped itself around my skin like a cold, frosty blanket.

"Yeah," I muttered, rubbing my arms to try and keep myself warm. I suddenly realised he was shrugging off his duster. It looked beautifully warm.

"Here," he handed me is duster and could almost already feel the heat radiating off it. With a swallow and took it from him and slid my arms inside it. It was hopelessly large on me but God it was warm. I felt myself shiver with happiness as the warmth settled onto my body. It also smelled glorious. I could smell aftershave, which complimented his own, unique scent so well. It was mouth-wateringly delicious.

"Here comes your drink," Dimitri muttered, his gaze fluttering over to where Mason stood, holding my glass of freezing cold coke. I took it from him with a nod and a smile of thanks. He opened his mouth to say something but his attention was diverted by the sound of someone hurling their guts up. He ran inside and a few moments later was dragging a rather ill looking boy outside, shoving him in the bush to throw up so nobody could hear him.

"Taste good?" Dimitri asked. I nodded and smiled up at him. I felt my gaze anxiously fall on Lissa and Christian. Lissa looked upset and Christian looked as though he was trying to console her, but everything he said made her snap. I could tell that from over here.

"You want to go and see what's wrong?" Dimitri questioned.

"I want to but I can't, they need to sort it out themselves," I replied, still watching them. I felt Lissa's gaze fall on me for a second. I could see the tears forming in her eyes and I gave her a sympathetic smile. She nodded back and then turned back to Christian, who almost looked lost in what ever he was telling her.

I took another gulp of the coke. It tasted a little funny but the might have just given me full fat. I always had diet instead. I had never tried full fat before.

"I think Adrian's parties are a little better when you actually feel like enjoying them," I commented, focusing on one of the fairy lights that dangled above Dimitri's head.

"Your probably right, he's thrown some brilliant parties over the years," Dimitri responded, his eyes mysterious and dark.

"I can believe that," I said with a chuckle.

"But I bet you've probably been to better parties," he commented with a sly smile. I grinned back mischievously.

"I'm keeping that secret," I replied.

Dimitri smiled and then looked around at the fairy lights surrounding us. I was content to let my eyes wonder over his face.

We chatted some more about parties and trivial things to do with school, like our preferred method of murdering the teachers. I sipped my way through my cold cola and started to feel a little funny. When I was finished I felt drunk. Very drunk. I slurred my way through each sentence and it wasn't long before Dimitri cottoned on.

"Rose, are you okay?" he asked. I watched his dark eyes sparkle with concern and smiled at him flirtatiously.

"I'm fine comrade, come on, let's head inside," I purred. I really wanted him right then. I wanted him so much. My eyes became fixed on that glorious little triangle of tanned chest that his shirt allowed people to see, and ogle. I just wanted to see what the exposed skin tasted like.

"Are you sure your okay Rose?" he double-checked, still not moving. Why couldn't he just move? I wanted to go back to that party, and I wanted him to come with me.

I stood up and felt myself wobble slightly. I swayed my way over to where he sat and linked my arm through his and heaved him up. He stood up and we began to walk back inside. I had to lean on him heavily as the world around me began spinning. I pushed on though and carried on walking, laughing and flirting over something or other. I kept on losing my trail of thought, further proof to say that I was drunk.

"Rose, I think you need to get home," Dimitri murmured in my ear once we were inside.

"No Dimitri! Just because you don't want to have any fun doesn't mean you should stop me too!" I yelled at him, pushing him away. He barely budged but it was enough time for me to shakily dodge out of his grasp and head over to where Adrian sat with Mason, Andre, Eddie and Natalie. I noticed sat beside Andre was Camille Conta. I watched as she whispered things in his ear, making him chuckle mischievously.

I wobbled my way over to them and plonked myself onto Adrian's lap. I let my hands wind around his neck and I brought my face closer to his so we were only inches away from eachother. I heard him catch his breath.

"Hey gorgeous," I purred, giving him my best man-eater smile. I just wanted some action. Is that such a crime?

"Hello sexy girl," Adrian didn't need another invitation to flirt.

"What's wrong with her Dimitri?" Andre asked. I glared at him over my shoulder.

"Nothing, I just wanted to get closer to this beast here," I gestured to Adrian with a nod of my head and he chuckled under his breath.

"I don't know, she had a cola and now she's acting like she's drunk," Dimitri responded to the question that was initially intended for him.

"Who got it for her?" Andre asked suspiciously. I was too occupied with flirting with Adrian to take any more notice of their conversation.

"Mason bought it to her, but he's probably not the one who poured it," Dimitri answered.

"Rose! See you came back to join the action then!" I heard a low voice interrupt. I looked round to see Ralf standing there, with a smug expression on his face.

"Piss off," I hissed at him, slurring my words.

"Playing hard to get then?" Ralf teased. My out-of-control temper flared up and I lifted myself from Adrian's lap and staggered over to him.

"You little dick! Didn't you hear me? Get the fuck out!" I yelled, bringing my face right close to his.

"I know you feel an attraction to me Rose, just accept it," Ralf purred. I heard a growl escape from my lips.

"Fuck off you dickhead!" I yelled. I pushed him back, hard, and he stumbled backwards and then started falling. He fell onto some poor guy and had a whole pint of beer poured over his head. He then fell to the floor and then lay there for a while, moaning and looking around woozily.

"Get the fucking message!" I shouted at him angrily and then suddenly, everything started to spin.

The wall span at a ridiculously fast pace. Everybody's faces blurred into one mass of varying shades and colours. I felt something churn in my stomach and then it suddenly shot up my throat. All of a sudden all the pizza I had eaten that evening had come surging out of mouth and onto the floor.

I felt a warm arm wrap around my waist and then a hand tangle into my hair, lifting it out of my face. I stood in that same position until I was pretty sure I wouldn't throw up again. I straightened up and fell back, letting my head rest against the rock hard, hot chest. A beautiful scent wrapped around me and I relaxed instantly, even though the walls were still spinning at an alarming rate.

"I'll get her home," I heard Andre's voice amongst the sea of other voices.

"No, you stay Andre, I'll go, it's fine," I heard another voice, a voice I could have recognised amongst millions. Dimitri, the owner of the body who supported all of my body weight.

"You sure Dimitri?" I heard Andre check. I just wanted to go. Why couldn't Andre just accept Dimitri taking me back and let me go.

"Andre, I'm sure, you stay," Dimitri insisted firmly. I felt him lift me up into his arms so he cradled me protectively.

I opened my eyes and looked up into his dark, concerned eyes.

"I'm sorry Dimitri," I muttered groggily.

"Shh Roza, it's okay," he murmured. I loved the way he had changed my name. I loved the way it slipped off of his tongue easily. It soothed me and surrounded me in it's warm embrace.

It wasn't long before I had been loaded into an unfamiliar car. Dimitri left me briefly before jumping in the driver's seat. I let my head fall back against the leather headrest and I sighed. He drove me home, humming a little tune which relaxed me no end. By the time we got back to Lissa's house I wouldn't be surprised if people thought I was on dope.

Dimitri had spare keys to the house luckily and he let us in. It was dark and there was no cars on the driveway so I figured Mr and Mrs Dragomir had headed out. Dimitri didn't turn on any lights downstairs to my relief as it would make my pounding headache ten times worse. He carried my upstairs and to my room before lying me onto my bed. I kicked off my heels onto the floor and then let him pull my covers over me.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, bringing a chair over from my desk and sitting beside my bed.

"I feel shit," I muttered, wincing as my headache burned away.

"I'll be back in a second, okay," Dimitri said. He stroked my hand briefly with his own, leaving a tingling trail across my skin. He then hurried out and left me in my darkened room.

He came back just as I was beginning to drift off to sleep. I wanted to sleep so desperately. I needed to sleep, but I didn't want to waste a single moment with Dimitri, even though I felt awful.

He came back with a glass of water and some pills.

"If you drink it, it'll ease the hangover in the morning," he informed me. He headed over to my desk and flicked on my reading lamp so a comfortable, warm light spread gently across the room.

He came back and then slowly helped me sip some water. I took the pills to help with the headache before gulping down some more of the water. He settled down on the chair beside me and watched me with those gorgeous brown eyes that held so much sympathy and concern.

"Thanks," I murmured to him, trying a shaky smile.

"It's okay, I think someone spiked your drink," he mused thoughtfully.

"Probably, I don't think Mason did though," I responded very quietly, my voice couldn't go any louder.

"No, but we'll worry about that tomorrow," he assured me with a gentle smile that made my heart miss a beat. I then groaned at the realisation that I had school tomorrow. Trust Adrian to throw a party on a Thursday when there was the Friday at school left for everybody to suffer.

"I can't go to school, this hangover is going to be awful," I confessed in a strained voice.

"Don't worry about school, I'll handle it," Dimitri told me. He hadn't drunk enough to get drunk and I shouldn't have, but my drink got spiked, so of course he would have to go to school. He wouldn't suffer with a killer hangover like me.

"You need to sleep Roza," he told me in a soft voice. His hand slowly and gently came to my face, his thumb rubbing softly against my cheekbone. I felt a thousand electrical pulses in my skin, created from his touch. He gazed at his had suspiciously, like he too had felt the electric between us.

"What doe's Roza mean?" I asked him groggily.

"It's your name in Russian, now sleep Roza," he insisted softly, his accent seemed more pronounced than usual. Maybe it was because of the intensity between us or because his voice was so much more quieter than normal.

"Sweet dreams," he murmured in my ear softly.

**So I hope you all liked it ;) Feel free to review ;)**


	8. Kisses and Revenge

**Okay guys, this chapter is pretty important and might answer some of the questions you have. Oh and also I'm sorry for any mistakes, I know I hate reading stories with any typos so I apologise in advance for any that you see ;) All characters belong to Richelle Mead. **

The next morning I awoke to a pair of jade green eyes staring down at me with concern shining inside them.

"You okay?" she asked. Once I had come around enough to assess my current health situation I realised I really wasn't okay. It felt like a hammer had taken up residence in my head and was pummelling the walls of my skull. I tried to remember back to last night. It was all blurry and cloudy except from where Dimitri took me home. I remembered gazing up into his chocolate brown eyes, wanting to get lost in their never-ending depths. I remembered the feeling of his hand on my cheek, his thumb gently tracing along my cheekbone. The electricity that crackled between our skin.

"Rose?" Lissa's voice broke me from my reverie.

"My head hurts like a son of a bitch but I'll be fine," I assured her with a weak smile. She didn't look convinced.

"I'm fine Liss," I told her. She smiled slightly before placing a kiss on my forehead and then rushing downstairs to go to breakfast.

Once alone I was left to my own thoughts again, which were interrupted by that fucking headache.

Roza. My name in Russian. He had murmured it like it was some sort of ancient prayer. "Sweet dreams," he had whispered to me. I hadn't dreamt at all. But no dreams was heavenly compared to what I usually experienced every night. He had carried me in his arms, cradling me like I was on the edge of deaths door. He had cared for me, he had cared for me more than you would care for a friend. Maybe, just maybe, he could feel what I felt for him. The thought sent my world spinning and my heart hammering against my chest.

I drifted off to sleep with his voice murmuring my Russian name. It played round and round in my head like a lullaby, sending my off into a beautifully calm sleep. The sleep that my body so desperately needed.

"Rose?" my sleep was broken as I heard that low Russian accent murmur my name. I opened my eyes for my gaze to be met by a pair of deep, rich brown eyes that I could recognise amongst millions.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" I muttered, my voice sounded weak and unfamiliar.

"I don't have to go yet, I wanted to check that you were okay," he explained. I felt an involuntary smile creep across my face.

"My head hurts and I feel a little sick but I'll survive," I assured him, my smile still in place. I saw the corners of his mouth twitch up and he once again placed a hand on my cheek.

"I'll miss you in art," he whispered.

"I'll miss you too comrade, I'm going to be stuck here all day on my own," I told him.

"Anything is better than school," he said.

"I guess your right. Are you going to find out any more about who spiked my drink?" I asked him.

"Of course, I'll make whatever sick bastard who did that pay," he replied firmly. I felt my heart miss a beat. He was protecting me. It was strange being protected by someone else. I was usually the one who did the protecting. If it had been anyone else I would have told them to piss of because I could take care of myself, but I liked him protecting me. I felt safe with him.

"I have to go," he eventually whispered, his smile now gone.

"Okay, have a good day," I replied glumly. Suddenly he bought his lips down to my forehead and placed a beautiful, warm, sweet kiss on my skin. A smile spread across my face and I felt the patch of skin that he kissed heat up. I almost expected it to start glowing or something. My smile grew into a grin and he moved his head away and watched me with his gorgeous brown eyes. A smile grew across his face and I really wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him very much. Instead he just gazed down into my eyes with that glorious smile, leaving my heart thudding inside my chest like it would after I had gone for a really, really long run.

"You've made my day comrade," I whispered, with a squeeze of my hand, he was gone.

Once I had eventually dragged myself out of bed, had a shower and changed into some loose tracksuit bottoms and a tank top, I headed downstairs to eat something. I had a slice of toast and a cup of tea with a gazillion spoons of sugar in it. I liked sweet tea. I went into the games room and flicked on the TV and searched through the endless channels to find 'Kick-Ass' showing on some film channel. I settled down and enjoyed watching the eye-candy that was Aaron Johnson. Talk about fitness reincarnated. When it came to the scene when him and Katy kissed I just thought about me kissing Dimitri. I wanted to kiss him so badly. I almost thought Kick-Ass was Dimitri but I quickly abandoned any thoughts of Dimitri in a skin tight oddly coloured wetsuit before they got too far.

When the film was finished I headed back upstairs and to mine and Lissa's room. I stood there and looked around hopelessly. I was bored out of my skull and didn't want to watch another film and ruin the mood 'Kick-Ass' had created. It was then I noticed a small piece of paper fluttering around my desk. Usually I wouldn't have noticed some random piece of paper but considering as I never did any work on paper at that desk it was empty of the stuff.

I walked across the room and picked up the small piece of paper that had been ripped off of something. A menu or something like that.

_Dimitri- 07958843652_

So now I had his phone number. What a result. I fished my phone out of my pocket and then put his number into my contacts before proceeding to send him a text.

_Thanks 4 ur number ;) Hope ur havin a nice day lol! :D Rose x_

I pressed send and with a smile, dropped my phone back into my pocket. I was feeling way better than I was when I first woke up. Glancing out of the window I saw the sun shining brightly in a perfectly clear blue sky. There wasn't a cloud there. It would be a nice day to go for a walk and I wanted to get out of the house for while.

I headed downstairs to grab a bottle of water and to take my iPod and my spare keys off the kitchen worktop before heading towards the front door. Mrs Dragomir had gone off to work not long before I had my late breakfast.

Locking the door behind me I headed down the drive and onto the street. As I was walking, enjoying the sun and the sights around me, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. My heart thumped extra hard. He had text me back.

_U missed out on seein Ozera getting his ass kicked by Stan haha! :D _

I started smiling as I read the text. People driving past must have thought I was mentally deranged or something along those lines. I set about replying quickly, he must be on his lunch break.

_What happened? _

I headed off onto a small path that wound into the woods. The trees were starting to gain their leaves. Brushing past a small bush I saw it had delicate little pink buds. The sunlight filtered through the branches and the small fresh leaves, creating dapples on the dusty ground. A few minutes later Dimitri had text back, he was a fairly speedy texter.

_He was runnin down the corridor to see lissa 4 sum reason and Stan caught him lol. He proper kicked his ass! :D_

I laughed I could imagine him doing that. As I set about replying I heard the crunch of a branch behind me.

Glancing over my shoulder my eyes met a pair of eyes I thought I'd never see again.

I began running, running faster and faster, pushing my legs until they screamed at me in protest but the adrenaline just made me keep on going. Faster and faster I ran. In my head I thought I could get away. But in my heart, I knew, I could never truly get away from him.

The sound of feet pummelling against the dry, hard ground, rang out behind me. I felt the tears escaping from my eyes and I pushed myself further. Trying to get away. The forest looped round, back onto the street. If I could get onto the street I should be okay. I got to the bend and went round it sharply, dust kicking up off my heels.

He was still following. He wouldn't give up. He wanted revenge. He craved it like a vampire craved blood or an alcoholic craved alcohol. Once he found me, he wouldn't stop chasing until I was dead. And now he had found me.

I screamed in my head for Dimitri. Then something clicked inside me. Dimitri would protect me. I knew that. He would kill anyone who hurt me. But when Dimitri wasn't there I insisted I could always protect myself, but yet here I was, running away. I shouldn't be running, I should be fighting.

I stopped, sending a cloud of dust into the air. I span around before it could attack my eyes and faced my opponent.

"Don't run," I whispered to myself firmly through gritted teeth. My heart thudded against my chest, trying to break through.

My opponent slid to a halt in front of me and I clenched my fists, ready to fight. Without further delay I stepped forward and delivered a swift kick to his stomach. He staggered back but came back to me and began to punch me. He tried to grab my upper arms and push me down but I wouldn't go. I leapt up onto him and grabbed whatever I could. I clung to him like a monkey and he began to fall down. As we fell I rolled onto my back and then flipped onto my front, still holding onto his clothes. Once I had flipped over I lifted him up sharply and then threw him down to the ground. If I had more power behind me and didn't have a hangover, the move should have broken his back. Also, the ground was way too soft for my blow to have enough impact. Still, it had worked long enough for me to run.

There was only I few more yards before I reached the street. I could hear him coughing in the distance. The coughing stopped and finally my foot hit the concrete of the street. I turned and began running home as fast as I could. He could be coming after me right now. He could be right on my heels, about to grab my shoulders and drag me down, breaking my back.

"Rose!" I heard someone shout. It could have been him. I pushed my legs faster. The tears streamed from my eyes like blood. I could feel hot blood on my head and my arms stung. My fall had caused more damage than I had first thought.

"Rose! Stop running!" I heard the voice shout again. I could barely see through the tears that clouded my vision and the sound of the wind whipping past my ears made every noise seem muffled.

"ROSE! It's Dimitri!" the voice yelled. Suddenly I stopped. The ground slipped away and I fell to the gravely floor. I tucked my knees up to my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs and rocked myself back and forth slowly.

I felt two warm arms wrap around me protectively and I shivered.

"Rose, what happened?" he whispered, his mouth by my ear.

"He found me, I'm dead," I whispered in between sobs. He sat down next to me and pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me and allowing me to cry into his chest.

"Let's get you back," he whispered soothingly. He carried me back home yet again and took me up to my room. He took me into the bathroom and sat me down on the toilet seat. He found a medical kit in the bathroom cupboard and found a large packet of cotton wool. He wetted it with lukewarm water and began to clean up the dusty grazes on my arms as I sobbed my heart away.

"What happened?" he asked me, glancing up from his work with confused, concerned eyes.

"He found me in the woods, he chased me, I tried to fight him and then I ran, but he won't give up, not until I'm dead," I noticed Dimitri flinch as I recalled my brief story, brushing away any salty tears that had trickled down to my lips.

"Who?" Dimitri asked.

"Jesse, Jesse Zecklos," I whispered his name and my whole body turned as cold as a frozen stone.

I had to tell him the story. I had kept it bottled up for too long. Nobody knew the full story. Lissa and Andre knew parts, but I had edited it to make it easier too tell. But now, sitting here in the bathroom with Dimitri cleaning my wounds, and me sobbing until I felt sick, I knew I had to tell someone the full story. The only other person who knew the complete, unedited story from beginning to end, was dead.

"I never used to be friends with her, I hated her, but Lissa liked her," I began through painful cries.

"Who?"

"Mia Rinaldi. Her father was some gangster type of guy, he used to be very powerful and influential, anybody who got in his way would be killed, of course he made a lot of enemies," I explained. "Mia was going out with Jesse Zecklos, Jesse was, is, dangerous, he hurt every single person who laid a finger on Mia without permission," I paused and took a deep breath. Dimitri watched me carefully, still attending to my wounds.

"One day me, Mia and Lissa all went to a party, I was just starting to get along with Mia, by the end of the party I was wondering why I use to hate her so much, she was a really lovely person," Dimitri moved round to my other arm, still listening intently, "Lissa got driven home by Andre, me and Mia decided to stay a while, Mia and me got really drunk and we had both lost our phones so we couldn't call anyone to pick us up, Mia said that we could go to her dad's house which was nearby, but we had to go through some really dark alleyway," I shuddered as I remembered the nights events unfold. It was as if it was yesterday.

Dimitri moved so he knelt before me, he took both my hands in his and squeezed them sympathetically.

"I don't even know who he was, but he was standing there, almost waiting, Mia recognised him though. She froze up and grabbed onto my arm. She pierced my skin with her nails, my blood was the only warm thing around at that moment," I stopped and frowned "I know now that he had been completely ripped off by Mia's dad, he had lost everything to him and he wanted revenge, so he went about killing his daughter, his daughter being Mia," I shivered as I whispered that last part of the sentence. More tears came burning down my cheeks and Dimitri wiped them away with one long, graceful finger.

"He told her to move away from me, she was too scared, she wouldn't move, he pulled out the gun and shouted it, she still didn't move, she told me she was scared, so, so scared," I could barely bring myself to tell the next part of the story "Then, without hesitation, he shot her down dead beside me. Her hand went loose around my arm and she fell down, barely making a noise as she fell to the concrete floor. The man ran, and I was left alone with this dead girl," I let out a small whimper of my pain as my heart twisted inside my chest. "Her blood ran down the street, turning the puddles red. I cowered over her body and screamed out. I hadn't protected her, and now she was dead, it was all my fault," I stammered.

"It wasn't Roza, it never will be, you stood by her, that was all you could do without getting shot yourself," he whispered to me comfortingly, squeezing my hands in his own.

"I wish I had been shot," I muttered. He bought himself closer to me.

"Don't say that Roza, don't you dare," he said firmly through gritted teeth. I could see the pain in his eyes.

"Jesse's coming after me now, Mia was murdered on my watch and now he wants revenge," I explained to him quietly.

"He won't hurt you Roza, I won't let him," Dimitri paused and looked down, his eyes clouded in thought "I'll kill him if he doe's," and he wasn't even joking. He looked up at me, his brown eyes deadly serious. This was his genuine plan. If Jesse came after me again, Dimitri would kill him. I didn't want Dimitri to kill anyone. I didn't want Jesse to murder me obviously, but I didn't want Dimitri murdering him.

I flipped the scenario over. If someone had murdered Dimitri, and whoever had been with him had failed to protect him, I would murder them too. It's a revenge thing. Jesse is just doing what anybody would do in his situation.

"Don't kill him Dimitri," I whispered.

"I'm not having him kill you, you weren't the one who murdered Mia, he shouldn't be hunting you down, he should be hunting the murderer down," Dimitri growled fiercely.

"He might have already hunted the killer down, which explains why he's now after me," I told him truthfully.

If Jesse had intended to kill both me and the killer then I'm pretty sure he would go after that killer first and then myself. If he's chasing me now, that means that he's either already killed Mia's murdered, or he's not going to kill him at all. Or, maybe he will act like a twisted psycho, overcome with grief, and save the killers death till last, like someone would the best parts of a meal.

"He won't hurt you Roza, he never will," Dimitri told me in a fierce, determined voice. I gazed into his beautiful eyes and I believed him. With him sitting before me, his eyes like flames, I felt perfectly safe. I felt invincible. I knew he would protect me from Jesse. I knew he would stand by me in my moments of weakness and depression. I knew that I would do just the same for him. I also knew, that I loved him. I always had, but it was only now that I realised it.

"I love you," I whispered. Then, with a smile, he bought his face closer to mine. I was going to kiss him. Finally, I was going to kiss him.

His lips brushed against mine and one thousand different emotion surged through my body. I bought myself closer to him and pressed my lips firmer against his. I tasted that sweet, beautiful taste and I just wanted more. I was instantly addicted. He wrapped a hand into my long dark hair and my hands slipped around his face. The electricity became so strong that it felt like we were in a solid sphere of it.

The kiss was soft, gentle, beautiful. It was everything that a girl could ever want from a kiss and more. Any other kiss I had had in my life was just nothing compared to this. Add all those kisses up and it still could never compare the heavenly feeling of his lips against mine. The way they worked together in perfectly harmony. We were two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that fitted together perfectly. He completed me in a way that nobody else could. He was all I needed in this world.

"I wish I had met you earlier," he whispered as we broke away. We were still so close to eachother. Our foreheads pressed together and that was all we needed. We took strength from eachother and it made us invincible.

"I do too," I told him honestly.

Dimitri bandaged up my wounds after rubbing a little cream into them that stung and made me winced. We then headed downstairs and into the games room. Dimitri flicked on the TV to the movie channel that I was on earlier. We settled down on the sofa, me wrapped up in his warm embrace. It wasn't long before I had drifted off to sleep.

A long, golden beach spread out before me. In the distance I could see a tall figure. Dimitri. He was jogging towards me gently. I could feel tears of happiness running down my face at a quick pace. My skin was dirty and I wore a pair of short denim shorts and a baggy t-shirt that was covered in stains and blood. My skin was dirty and the sand felt like heaven between my toes.

"Um, guys?" I heard a sweet voice interrupt my dream. I quickly woke up and glanced round in the direction of where the voice came from. Lissa stood there, watching me with a confused, but slightly amused expression on her face.

"Rose fell over and hurt herself, I found her on my lunch break and I cleaned her up," I heard Dimitri's low voice explain from beside me. Memories of the kiss came flooding back and I felt a lazy smile spread across my face.

"Oh right, it's dinner time Rose by the way," Lissa informed me before rushing out of the room quickly. I looked up at Dimitri with a wide smirk of my face.

"Ooops," was all I said before giggling. He chuckled. I then stood up and he followed.

"I have to go home I'm afraid," Dimitri told me awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets.

"Oh, that's okay, I'll see you around I guess," I murmured tensely, looking down at the floor.

"Text me or call me if you need to, I don't care what time it is," he said with a smile. I smiled back at him.

"Okay," then suddenly I wrapped my arms around him and gave him a hug. I didn't even know where it had come from, and apparently he didn't either. He quickly relaxed and hugged me back and with one last affectionate smile, he left the room. I listened for the front door and when I heard it click shut behind him I left the games room.

Lissa had a lot to ask me when we got back to our room that evening. She quizzed my about Dimitri to every single last detail.

"Did you kiss him?" she asked, her jade green eyes wide with excitement. I paused. I had answered every other question pretty easily. It was all stuff like, "Do you like him?" and "Do you think he likes you?"

"Oh my god you did didn't you!" she almost yelled, her eyes went even wider. I rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm.

"Okay, yes we did kiss," I gave in eventually. She was my best friend. I would tell her anything. Almost anything.

"That's awesome! Oh my gosh this is so cute!" she squealed like a thirteen year old. I laughed and jokingly slapped her lightly around the arm.

"So how's things with Ozera?" I asked her casually. She fell very silent and her smile instantly slipped away. She looked down at the duvet on my bed and I noticed her sigh delicately.

"He broke up with me," she muttered quietly.

"How? Why?" I asked incredulously. Him and Lissa seemed like the perfect couple. It seemed as though they were in love with eachother. The split had come as quite a shock to me. But if I was surprised there was no way of guessing how surprised Liss would have been.

"We argued a bit and then he said that he just didn't want to carry on arguing with me, he said that he thought that if we weren't together then we wouldn't argue," I noticed she didn't cry. She had probably shed all her tears alone whilst I had been dreaming over Dimitri or suffering with a hangover that I could have possibly avoided. It hurt me to think that my best friend could be suffering alone.

"Oh Liss," I said before pulling her into a hug. She then began to cry into my shoulder, completely soaking it in hot tears.

My thoughts drifted to this afternoon. I wondered if I should tell her about my encounter with Jesse. I decided against it. She didn't need that loaded onto her plate as well as her own troubles. I had told Dimitri. I couldn't confide in her for fear of putting to much stress on her but I could confide in Dimitri. Something just told me that he could handle the things she couldn't, and I trusted that instinct. I trusted him.

That night Andre, me and Lissa all went down to the games room and played some zombie shooting game. Lissa didn't really like it because of all the blood guts and gore but I found myself imagining every zombie having the shadowy face of Mia's killer. Unsurprisingly I won. I don't Andre had the same level of rage burning inside him as I did. As Andre and Lissa started having a bit of sibling rivalry on the Xbox I felt my phone go in my pocket.

_Hi its Adrian x would u lissa and andre like 2 go cinema tomoz? Xx;)_

I rolled my eyes as I realised Adrian had got hold of my number. I think my phone would now get overloaded with texts from him.

"Hey guys, Adrian got hold of my number and just asked if you would like to go to the cinema tomorrow," I announced, setting about replying.

"Sure thing, what time and what will we see?" Andre asked.

_I wont ask how u got it lol! Yep we r up 4 it ;) wat time and wat will we see? X_

I pressed send and off the text went, whizzing over to Adrian's phone. Lissa was currently grimacing at the rather graphic image of Andre's game character slicing off a zombies head. She faked throwing up over the side of the sofa. She didn't seem too beat up about her split with Christian. Or maybe she was just pretending to be happy and cheerful in front of us. I knew that I did that a lot and she had kind of caught that off me.

_it's a secret anyway :P 1.00 maybe, mason is gonna come 2 I think and we want dimitri 2 but I don't hav his number x oh + I was hoping that u girls would choose ;) xx_

Adrian's text came through and I smiled to myself as I read it. Free choice of movie? Perfect. Cinema with Dimitri? Heavenly.

"One o'clock guys, and it's mine and Lissa's choice for what we see," I gave a smirk and wink "Mason is coming along to and he wants Dimitri to come but he doesn't have his number, I can ask him though," I explained, setting about texting Adrian back yet again.

"We're good with that, although I'm not sure I really want you two to choose the film," Andre grumbled, turning his attention back to the game. I text Dimitri before Adrian, asking if he wanted to go to the cinema and then I replied to Adrian. To my joy Dimitri said that he could go and would be round ours at half twelve the following day.

Organising a trip to the cinema made me feel almost normal again. It wasn't possible to forget about my encounter with Jesse yet, not with the cuts and the bruises aching and stinging, a constant, painful reminder. But the cinema trip brightened my outlook on life at that moment and I felt more positive.

I let Lissa choose what film we go to see, seeing as she needed as much love as possible after her break. To my amusement I noticed nobody had invited Ozera. Either he couldn't go or nobody wanted him to after his and Lissa's break up. I wouldn't be surprised if Andre had decided to have nothing more to do with him, he was very protective over his little sister and didn't like to see her get hurt by anyone, especially not one of his best mates.

Lissa chose 'Inception' which was doing some random showing out our local cinema. She had never seen it before and probably didn't realise that it was a lot more complicated and a lot different to the chick flicks that she normally watched. I had already seen it and loved it. I looked forward to the prospect of seeing it again, plus the boys wouldn't moan at us. I knew that Andre loved it and I'm pretty sure he spread the news of it's epicness to the other guys.

That night I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. It sure had been a pretty eventful day. But it hadn't taken it's toll on me as much as I thought it would. A relieving thought crept into my brain. My skin was getting tougher. These events weren't affecting me as badly as they used to, which is good as they are probably going to get ten times worse.

**I hope you all liked it and hopefully some of the questions you might have, have been answered. Feel free to review ;) x Oh and has anyway seen Inception and Kick-Ass? And another thing, did chapter six called Friends show up, because I put it on around the time when the new uploading thingy wasn't working so I don't know if it's actually showing up for other people?**


	9. Authors Note: I'm really sorry guys

**Hi guys. I know I haven't updated in ages and I'm really sorry but I've just lost interest in writing this story. I might add a few more chapters on at a later date but I just want to apologise to anybody who wanted me to update. Commitment isn't my strong point and this is my first fanfic so I didn't exactly plan it out at all. Anyway, I'll stop with all the pathetic excuses now and once again just say sorry for letting you guys down. **


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